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THE 

KEY TO THEOSOPHY 

BEING A CLEAR EXPOSITION, IN THE FORM 
OF QUESTION AND ANSWER, OF THE 

ETHICS, SCIENCE, AND PHILOSOPHY, FOR THE STUDY OF 

WHICH THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 

HAS BEEN FOUNDED 

WITH A 

COPIOUS GLOSSARY OF GENERAL 
THEOSOPHICAL TERMS 



BY 

H^pfeLAVATSKY 



\></ 



Second anD IRevieeD Bmertcan BDitton 






'A 






NEW YORK 

THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

144 MADISON AVENUE 

1896 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by 

H. P. Blavatsky, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C. 






DEDICATED 

BY 

*' H. P. B.'' 

TO ALL HER PUPILS, 

THAT 

THEY MAY LEARN AND TEACH 

IN THEIR TURN. 



/ 



J 



PREFACE. 



The purpose of this book is exactly expressed in its title, 
The Key to Theosophy, and needs but few words of ex- 
planation. It is not a complete or exhaustive text-book of 
Theosophy, but only a key to unlock the door that leads 
to the deeper study. It traces the broad outHnes of the 
Wisdom- Religion, and explains its fundamental principles ; 
meeting, at the same time, the various objections raised by 
the average Western inquirer, and endeavoring to present 
unfamiliar concepts in a form as simple and in language as 
clear as possible. That it should succeed in making The- 
osophy intelligible without mental effort on the part of the 
reader would be too much to expect ; but it is hoped that 
the obscurity still left is of the thought, not of the language ; 
is due to depth, not to confusion. To the mentally lazy or 
obtuse Theosophy must remain a riddle ; for in the world 
mental as in the world spiritual each man must progress by 
his own efforts. The writer cannot do the reader's thinking 
for him, nor would the latter be any the better off if such 
vicarious thought were possible. The need for such an ex- 
position as the present has long been felt among those in- 
terested in the Theosophical Society and its work, and it is 
hoped that it will supply information, as free as possible from 
technicalities, to many whose attention has been awakened, 
but who, as yet, are merely puzzled and not convinced. 

Some care has been taken in disentangling some part of 

vii 



r 



viii PREFACE. 

what is true from what is false in Spiritualistic teachings as 
to the post-mortem life, and in showing the true nature of 
Spiritualistic phenomena. Previous explanations of a simi- 
lar kind have drawn much wrath upon the writer's devoted 
head, the Spiritualists, like too many others, preferring to 
believe what is pleasant rather than what is true, and be- 
coming very angry with any one who destroys an agree- 
able delusion. For the past year Theosophy has been the 
target for every poisoned arrow of Spiritualism, as though 
the possessors of a half-truth felt more antagonism to the 
possessors of the whole truth than those who had no share 
to boast of. 

Very hearty thanks are due from the author to many 
Theosophists who have sent suggestions and questions, or 
have otherwise contributed help during the writing of this 
book. The work will be the more useful for their aid, and 
that will be their best reward. 

H. P. B. 

London, 1889. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



In order to further facilitate the study of Theosophy, 
which the Key has already made an easy task, I have 
added a copious Glossary of all the technical terms found 
in it. Most of the definitions and explanations are transcrip- 
tions or abbreviations from the larger Theosophical Glossary, 
It is hoped that both Glossaries will supply a long-felt 
want, and that the larger one will cover the whole range 
of occult terminology as completely as possible. 

H. P. B. 

London, 1890. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND AND REVISED 
AMERICAN EDITION. 



The main features of the revision attempted are: (i) a 
systematic use of italics and capitals ; (2) a consistent trans- 
literation of Sanskrit words ; (3) the correction of some mis- 
takes intimated by H. P. B. while still living ; (4) the re- 
moval of some obscurities of style ; (5) the omission of some 
passages of a controversial nature which are no longer of 
general interest. 

It is thought that a change of form in the mechanical con- 
struction of the book will be welcomed by most students, 
numerous complaints having been made concerning the size 
and generally unwieldy form of all the preceding editions. 

New York, 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



SECTION I. 

Theosophy and the Theosophical Society. 

PAGE 

The Meaning of the Name ....... i 

The Policy of the Theosophical Society ..... 5 

The Wisdom-Religion Esoteric in all Ages .... 7 

Theosophy is not Buddhism . . . . . . .12 

SECTION II. 
Exoteric and Esoteric Theosophy. 



What the Modern Theosophical Society is not . 
Theosophists and Members of the Theosophical Society 
The Difference between Theosophy and Occultism . 
The Difference between Theosophy and Spiritualism 
Why is Theosophy Accepted? ..... 



15 
18 

23 

25 
32 



SECTION III. 

The Working System of the Theosophical Society. 

The Objects of the Society ....... 36 

The Common Origin of Man . . . . . . -38 

Our Other Objects ......... 43 

On the Sacredness of the Pledge ...... 44 

SECTION IV. 

The Relations of the Theosophical Society to Theosophy. 

On Self- Improvement ........ 47 

The Abstract and the Concrete ...... 50 



xu 



CONTENTS, 



SECTION V. 
The Fundamental Teachings of Theosophy. 



On God and Prayer .... 

Is it Necessary to Pray? . 

Prayer Kills Self-Reliance 

On the Source of the Human Soul . 

The Buddhist Teachings on the Above 



55 
59 
64 
67 
69 



SECTION VI. 

Theosophical Teachings as to Nature and Man. 

The Unity of All in All 75 

Evolution and Illusion ........ 76 

On the Septenary Constitution of our Planet . . . - 79 

The Septenary Nature of Man . . . . . , .81 

The Distinction between Soul and Spirit . . . . -83 

The Greek Teachings 86 



SECTION VII. 

On the Various Post- Mortem States. 

The Physical and the Spiritual Man .... 
On Eternal Reward and Punishment, and on Nirvana 
On the Various *' Principles '* in Man . . 

SECTION VIII. 

On Reincarnation or Rebirth. 

What is Memory according to Theosophical Teaching? 
Why do we not Remember our Past Lives? 
On Individuality and Personality .... 
On the Reward and Punishment of the Ego 



90 

97 
104 



109 

113 
118 
122 



SECTION IX. 

On Kamaloka and Devachan. 

On the Fate of the Lower Principles 127 

Why Theosophists do not Believe in the Return of Pure 

'* Spirits" 129 



CONTENTS, xiii 

PAGE 

A Few Words about the Skandhas . . . . . .137 

On Post- Mortem and Postnatal Consciousness . . . 139 

What is Really Meant by Annihilation 145 

Definite Words for Definite Things 152 

SECTION X. 

On the Nature of our Thinking Principle. 

The Mystery of the Ego ........ 157 

The Complex Nature of Manas 162 

The Doctrine is Taught in St. John's Gospel . . . .165 

SECTION XI. 

On the Mysteries of Reincarnation. 

Periodical Rebirths 175 

What is Karma? 178 

Who are Those who Know? . . . . . . .191 

The Difference between Faith and Knowledge; or, Blind and 

Reasoned Faith 193 

SECTION XII. 
What is Practical Theosophy? 

Duty 202 

The Relations of the Theosophical Society to Political Re- 
forms .......... 206 

On Self-Sacrifice . . . . . . . . .211 

On Charity 215 

Theosophy for the Masses 2x8 

How Members can Help the Society 221 

What a Theosophist ought not to Do . . » . . 222 

SECTION XIII. 

On the Misconceptions about the Theosophical Society. 

Theosophy and Asceticism 230 

Theosophy and Marriage 234 

Theosophy and Education 235 

Why, then, is there so Much Prejudice against the Theosophical 

Society? ..,..,.... 242 



xiv CONTENTS, 

SECTION XIV. 
The " Theosophical Mahatmas." 

PAGE 

Are they '* Spirits of Light" or '' Goblins Damn'd" ? . . 244 
The Abuse of Sacred Names and Terms 252 

CONCLUSION. 

The Future of the Theosophical Society ..... 254 

Glossary . . 261 

Index 325 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 



I. 

THEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



THE MEANING OF THE NAME, 

Inquirer. — Theosophy aiid its doctrines are often referred 
to as a new-fa?tgled religion. Is it a religion ? 

Theosophist. — It is not. Theosophy is Divine Know- 
ledge or Science. 

Inq. — What is the real meaning of the term ? 

Theo. — Divine Wisdom, Theosophia (Qsoao'f ta), or Wis- 
dom of the Gods, as Theogonia (OeoYovia), Genealogy of 
the Gods. The word Bsot; means a God in Greek, one of 
the divine beings ; certainly not '' God " in the sense at- 
tached in our day to the term. Therefore it is not '' Wis- 
dom of God," as translated by some, but Divine Wisdom 
such as that possessed by the Gods. The term is many 
thousand years old. 

Inq. — What is the origin of the name ? 

Theo. — It comes to us from the Alexandrian philoso- 
phers, called lovers of truth, Philaletheians, houiphil (cpiX), 
*' loving," and aletheia (aX-fjOeia), ''truth." The name The- 



2 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

osophy dates from the third century of our era, and began 
with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples, who started the 
Eclectic Theosophical system, and were also called Analoget- 
icists. As explained by Professor Alexander Wilder, M.D., 
F.T.S., in his New Platonism and Alchemy ^^ they were so 
called — 

Because of their practice of interpreting all sacred legends and nar- 
ratives, myths and mysteries, by a rule or principle of analogy and 
correspondence, so that events which were related as having occurred 
in the external world were regarded as expressing operations and ex- 
periences of the human soul. 

They were also denominated Neoplatonists. Though 
Theosophy, or the Eclectic Theosophical system, is gener- 
ally attributed to the third century, yet, if Diogenes Laertius 
is to be credited, its origin is much earlier, as he attributed 
the system to an Egyptian priest, Pot Amun, who lived in 
the early days of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The same author 
tells us that the name is Coptic, and signifies one consecrated 
to Amun, the God of Wisdom. Theosophy is the equiva- 
lent of the Sanskrit Brahma- Vidya, Divine Knowledge. 

Inq. — What was the object of this system ? 

Theo. — First of all to inculcate certain great moral truths 
upon its disciples and all those who were *' lovers of the 
truth.'* Hence also the motto adopted by the Theosoph- 
ical Society : '' There is no religion higher than truth." 

Eclectic Theosophy was divided under three heads: 
(i) Belief in one absolute, incomprehensible, and supreme 
Deity, or infinite essence, which is the root of all Nature, 
and of all that is, visible and invisible. (2) Belief in man's 
eternal immortal nature, which, being a radiation of the 
Universal Soul, is of an identical essence with it. (3) The- 



* A Sketch of the Doctrines and Principal Teachers of the Eclectic or A lexan- 
drian School ; also an Otitline of the Interior Doctrines of the Alchemists of the 
Middle Ages. Albany, N. Y., 1869. 



# 

THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 3 

urgy, or '' divine work,'' or producing a work of Gods ; from 
theoiy *' Gods," and ergem, *'to work." The term is very 
old, but, as it belongs to the vocabulary of the Mysteries, 
was not in popular use. It was a mystic belief — practically 
proven by initiated Adepts and priests — that, by making 
one's self as pure as the incorporeal beings — i.e., by retiurn- 
ing to one's pristine purity of Nature — man could move the 
Gods to impart to him Divine Mysteries, and even cause 
them to become occasionally visible, either subjectively or 
objectively. It was the transcendental aspect of what is 
now called '' Spiritualism " ; but having been abused and 
misconceived by the populace, it had come to be regarded 
by some as necromancy, and was generally forbidden. A 
travestied practice of the Theurgy of lamblichus lingers 
still in the ceremonial magic of some modern Kabalists. 
Modern Theosophy avoids and rejects both these kinds of 
magic and necromancy as being very dangerous. Real 
divine Theurgy requires an almost superhuman purity and 
hoKness of life ; otherwise it degenerates into mediumship 
or black magic. The immediate disciples of Ammonius 
Saccas, who was called Theodidaktos, '' God-taught" — such 
as Plotinus and his follower Porphyry — rejected Theurgy 
at first, but were finally reconciled to it through lamblichus, 
who wrote a work to that effect entitled De Mysteriis^ 
under the name of his own master, a famous Egyptian 
priest called Abammon. Ammonius Saccas was the son of 
Christian parents ; but being from his childhood repelled 
by dogmatic spiritualistic Christianity, he became a Neo- 
platonist, and, hke Jakob Bohme and other great seers and 
mystics, is said to have had Divine Wisdom revealed to him 
in dreams and visions. Hence his name of Theodidaktos. 
He resolved to reconcile every system of religion, and, by 
demonstrating their identical origin, establish one universal 
creed based on ethics. His life was so blameless and pure, 
his learning so profound and vast, that several church 



4 7V/£ KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

fathers were his secret disciples. Clemens Alexandrinus 
speaks very highly of him. Plotinus, the '' St. John " of 
Ammonius, was also a man universally respected and 
esteemed, and of the most profound learning and integ- 
rity. When thirty-nine years of age he accompanied the 
Roman Emperor Gordian and his army to the East, to be 
instructed by the sages of Bactria and India. He had a 
school of philosophy in Rome. Porphyry, his disciple, a 
Hellenized Jew, whose real name was Malek, collected all 
the writings of his master. Porphyry was also himself a 
great author, and gave an allegorical interpretation of 
some parts of Homer's writings. The system of medita- 
tion the Philaletheians resorted to was ecstasy, a system 
akin to Indian Yoga-practice. What is known of the Ec- 
lectic school is due to Origen, Longinus, and Plotinus, the 
immediate disciples of Ammonius.* 

The chief aim of the founders of the Eclectic Theo- 
sophical school was one of the three objects of its modem 
successor, the Theosophical Society, namely, to reconcile 
all religions, sects, and nations under a common system of 
ethics based on eternal verities. 

Inq. — What have you to show that this is not an impos- 
sible dream, and that all the world's religions are based on 
the one and the same truth ? 

Theo. — Their comparative study and analysis. The 
'' Wisdom-Religion " was one in antiquity ; and the same- 
ness of primitive religious philosophy is proven to us by 
the identical doctrines taught to the Initiates during the 
Mysteries, an institution once universally diffused. As 
Dr. Wilder says : 

All the old worships indicate the existence of a single Theosophy 
anterior to them. The key that is to open one must open all ; other- 
wise it cannot be the right key. 

* For further information see Dr. Wilder's pamphlet. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 



THE POLICY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 

li^Q.^—I/i the days of Animonius there were several great 
a>*cient i-eligions, and the sects m Egypt and Palestine alone 
were numerous. How could he reconcile them ? 

Theo. — By doing that which we again try to do now. 
The Neoplatonists were a large body, and belonged to va- 
rious religious philosophies ; so do our Theosophists. 

It was under Philadelphus that Judaism established itself 
in Alexandria, and forthwith the Hellenic teachers became 
the dangerous rivals of the College of Rabbis of Babylon. 
As the author of New Platonism very pertinently remarks : 

The Buddhistic, Vedantic, and Magian systems were expounded 
along with the philosophies of Greece. It was not wonderful that 
thoughtful men supposed that the strife of words ought to cease, 
and considered it possible to extract one harmonious system from the 
various teachings. . . . Pantaenus, Athenagoras, and Clement were 
thoroughly instructed in the Platonic philosophy, and comprehended 
its essential unity with the Oriental systems. 

In those days the Jew Aristobulus affirmed that the 
ethics of Aristotle represented the esoteric teachings of the 
law of Moses ; Philo Judaeus endeavored to reconcile the 
Pentateuch with the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy ; 
and Josephus proved that the Essenes of Carmel were 
simply the copyists and followers of the Egyptian Thera- 
peutae, or Healers. So it is in our day. We can show 
the line of descent of every Christian religion, as of every 
— even the smallest — sect. The latter are the minor twigs 
or shoots grown on the larger branches ; but shoots and 
branches spring from the same trunk — the Wisdom-Re- 
Ugion. To prove this was the aim of Ammonius, who 
endeavored to induce Gentiles and Christians, Jews and 
idolaters, to lay aside their contentions and strifes, remem- 
bering only that they were all in possession of the same 



6 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

truth under various vestments, and were all the children of 
a common mother. This is the aim of Theosophy like- 
wise. 

Says Mosheim of Ammonius : 

Conceiving that not only the philosophers of Greece, but also all 
those of the different barbarous nations, were perfectly in unison with 
each other with regard to every essential point, [he] made it his busi- 
ness so to expound the tenets of all these various sects as to make it 
appear they had all originated from one and the same source, and 
tended all to one and the same end. 

If the writer on Ammonius in the Edinburgh Encyclo- 
pedia knows what he is talking about, then he describes 
the modern Theosophists, their behefs and their work, for 
he says, speaking of the Theodidaktos : 

He adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt [the esoteric 
were those of India] concerning the universe and the Deity, consid- 
ered as constituting one great whole ; concerning the eternity of the 
world. . . . He also established a system of moral discipline which al- 
lowed the people in general to live according to the laws of their country 
and the dictates of Nature, but required the wise to exalt their mind by 
contemplation. 

Inq. — What are yoicr authorities for saying all this of the 
a7icient Theosophists of Alexandria? 

Theo. — An almost countless number of well-known 
writers. Mosheim — one of them — says that Ammonius 
taught that — 

The religion of the multitude went hand in hand with philosophy, 
and with her had shared the fate of being by degrees corrupted and ob- 
scured with mere human conceits, superstition, and lies ; and it ought, 
therefore, to be brought back to its original purity by purging it of this 
dross and expounding it upon philosophical principles ; and the whole 
which Christ had in view was to reinstate and restore to its primitive 
integrity the Wisdom of the ancients ; to reduce within bounds the uni- 
versally prevailing dominion of superstition ; and in part to correct, and 
in part to exterminate, the various errors that had found their way into 
the different popular religions. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 7 

This, again, is precisely what the modern Theosophists 
say; only while the great Philaletheian was supported and 
helped in the policy he pursued by two church fathers, 
Clement and Athenagoras, by the learned rabbis of the 
synagogue, by the philosophers of the Academy and the 
Grove, and while he taught a common doctrine for all, we, 
his followers on the same line, receive no recognition, but, 
on the contrary, are abused and persecuted. People fifteen 
hundred years ago are thus shown to have been more tol- 
erant than they are in this '' enlightened " century. 

Inq. — Was Ammomus encouraged a?id supported by the 
church because^ notwithsta7idi7ig his heresies^ he taught Chris- 
tianity and was a Christiaii ? 

Theo. — Not at all. He was born a Christian, but never 
accepted church Christianity. As said of him by Dr. Wilder : 

He had but to propound his instructions ** according to the ancient 
pillars of Hermes, which Plato and Pythagoras knew before, and from 
them constituted their philosophy. " Finding the same in the prologue 
of the Gospel according to John, he very properly supposed that the 
purpose of Jesus was to restore the great doctrine of Wisdom in its 
primitive integrity. The narratives of the Bible and the stories of the 
Gods he considered to be allegories illustrative of the truth, or else 
fables to be rejected. 

Moreover, as says the Edinburgh Encyclopedia: 

He acknowledged that Jesus Christ was an excellent man and the 
friend of God, but alleged that it was not his design entirely to abolish 
the worship of demons [Gods], and that his only intention was to 
purify the ancient religion. 

THE WISDOM-RELIGION ESOTERIC IN ALL AGES, 

Inq. — Sifice A7?imonius never committed anythiiig to writ- 
ings how can one feel sure that such were his teachings? 

Theo. — Neither did Buddha, Pythagoras, Confucius, 
Orpheus, Socrates, nor even Jesus, leave behind them any 



8 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

writings. Yet most of these are historical personages, ana 
their teachings have all survived. The disciples of Am- 
monius, among whom were Origen and Herennius, wrote 
treatises and explained his ethics. Certainly the latter ar^ 
as historical, if not more so, than the apostolic writings. 
Moreover, his pupils — Origen, Plotinus, and Longinus, 
counselor of the famous Queen Zenobia — have all left rec- 
ords of the Philaletheian system — so far, at all events, ay 
their pubHc profession of faith was known ; for the school 
was divided into exoteric and esoteric teachings. 

Inq. — How have the latte?^ tenets reached our day, sifici 
you hold that what is properly called the Wisdom- Re ligioi 
was esoteric? 

Theo. — The Wisdom- ReHgion was ever one and th^ 
same, and being the last word of possible human know 
ledge, was therefore carefully preserved. It preceded bj 
long ages the Alexandrian Theosophists, reached the mod 
em, and will survive every other religion and philosophy. 

Inq. — Where and by whom was it so preserved ? 

Theo. — Among Initiates of every country ; among pro- 
found seekers after truth — their disciples ; and in those part^ 
of the world where such topics have always been most 
valued and pursued— in India, central Asia, and Persia. 

Inq. — Can you give fue some proofs of its esotericism? 

Theo. — The best proof you can have of the fact is that 
every ancient religious, or rather philosophical, cult con- 
sisted of an esoteric or secret teaching, and an exoteric oi 
outward public worship. Furthermore, it is a well-known 
fact that the Mysteries of the ancients comprised with every 
nation the Greater (secret) and Lesser (pubHc) Mysteries — - 
as, for instance, in the celebrated solemnities called the 
Eleusinia, in Greece. From the Hierophants of Samothrace, 
Egypt, and the initiated Brahmans of the India of old, down 
to the later Hebrew rabbis, all, for fear of profanation, kept 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 9 

their real bona-fide beliefs secret. The Jewish rabbis called 
their secular religious series the Mercavah, or exterior body, 
the '' vehicle " or covering which contains the hiddeii soul — 
their highest secret knowledge. The priests of the ancient 
nations never imparted their real philosophical secrets to the 
masses. They allotted to the latter only the husks. North- 
ern Buddhism has its Greater and its Lesser Vehicle, known 
as the Mahayana, the esoteric, and the Hinayana, the exo- 
teric, schools. Nor can you blame them for such secrecy ; 
for surely you would not think of feeding your flock of 
sheep on learned dissertations on botany instead of on 
grass. Pythagoras called his Gnosis *'the knowledge of 
things that are," or •/] ^\(hzic, Tdiv ovtojv, and preserved that 
Knowledge for his pledged disciples only — for those who 
could digest such mental food and feel satisfied ; whom 
he pledged to silence and secrecy. Occult alphabets and 
secret ciphers are the development of the old Egyptian 
hieratic writings, the secret of which was, in the days of old, 
in the possession only of the Hierogrammatists, or initiated 
Egyptian priests. Ammonius Saccas, as his biographers 
tell us, bound his pupils by oath not to divulge his higher 
doctri7ies except to those who had already been instructed 
in preliminary knowledge, and who were also bound by a 
pledge. Finally, do we not find the same also in early 
Christianity, among the Gnostics, and even in the teachings 
of Christ ? Did he not speak to the multitudes in parables 
which had a twofold meaning, and explain his reasons only 
to his disciples ? '' Unto you," he says, '' it is given to know 
the mystery of the kingdom of God : but unto them that 
are without, all these things are done in parables." * And 
the author of New Platonism tells us that — 

The Essenes of Judea and Carmel made similar distinctions, divid- 
ing their adherents into neophytes, brethren, and the perfect [or those 
initiated], 

* Mark iv. w- 



10 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Examples might be brought from every country to this 
effect. 

Inq. — Ca?t you attam the ^'Secret Wisdo?n'' simply by 
study? Encyclopedias deji?ie Theosophy pretty much as 
Webster's Dictiofiary does, i,e,, as '' supposed intercourse with 
God and superior spirits, and conseque?it attainment of super- 
humaii knowledge by physical , , , or , , , chemical processes T 
Is this so ? 

Theo. — I think not. Nor is there any lexicographer 
capable of explaining, whether to himself or others, how S2i- 
perhuman knowledge can be attained by physical or chemical 
processes. Had Webster said by metaphysical and alchemi- 
cal processes, the definition would be approximately cor- 
rect ; as it is, it is absurd. Ancient Theosophists claimed, 
and so do the modern, that the Infinite cannot be known by 
the finite — i.e., sensed by the finite self — but that the divine 
essence could be communicated to the higher spiritual Self 
in a state of ecstasy. This condition can hardly be attained, 
like hypnotism, by '' physical and chemical processes." 

Inq. — What is your explanation of it? 

Theo. — Real ecstasy was defined by Plotinus as ''the 
liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness, becom- 
ing one and identified with the Infinite." This is the high- 
est condition, says Dr. A. Wilder, but not one of permanent 
duration, and it is reached only by the very, very few. It 
is, indeed, identical with that state which is known in 
India as Samadhi. The latter is practised by the Yogis, 
who facilitate it physically by the greatest abstinence in 
food and drink, and mentally by an incessant endeavor to 
purify and elevate the mind. Meditation is silent and un- 
uttered prayer, or, as Plato expressed it : 

The ardent turning of the soul toward God ; not to ask any particu- 
lar good [as in the common meaning of prayer], but for good itself — 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 11 

for the universal Supreme Good [of which we are a part on earth, and 
out of the essence of which we have all emerged]. . . . Therefore re- 
main silent in the presence of the divine ones, till they remove the 
clouds from thy eyes and enable thee to see, by the light which issues 
from themselves, not what appears as good to thee, but what is intrin- 
sically good. 

This is what the scholarly author of N'ew Flatonism, 
Dr. A. Wilder, describes as '' spiritual photography " : 

The soul is the camera in which facts and events, future, past, and 
present, are alike fixed; and the mind becomes conscious of them. 
Beyond our every-day w^orld of limits, all is one day or state — the past 
and future comprised in the present. . . . [Death is the last ecstasis 
on earth.] Then the soul is freed from the constraint of the body, 
and its nobler part is united to higher Nature and becomes partaker in 
the wisdom and foreknowledge of the higher beings. 

Real Theosophy is, for the mystics, that state which 
Apollonius of Tyana was made to describe thus : 

I can see the present and the future as in a clear mirror. The sage 
need not wait for the vapors of the earth and the corruption of the air 
to foresee [events]. . . . The theoi, or Gods, see the future; com- 
mon men, the present ; sages, that which is about to take place. 

The Theosophy of the sages he speaks of is well ex- 
pressed in the assertion, '^ The kingdom of God is within 
us." 

Inq. — Theosophy^ then^ is 7iot^ as held by some, a newly 
devised scheme ? 

Theo. — Only ignorant people can thus refer to it. It 
is as old as the world, in its teachings and ethics, if not in 
name, as it is also the broadest and most catholic system 
among all. 

Inq. — How comes it, then, that Theosophy has remained 
so u7iknown to the natiojis of the western he7nisphere ? Why 
should it have been a sealed book to races confessedly the most 
cultured and advanced? 



12 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Theo. — We believe there were nations as cultured in days 
of old, and certainly more spiritually " advanced," than we 
are. But there are several reasons for this wiUing igno- 
rance. One of them was given by St. Paul to the cultured 
Athenians — a loss, for long centuries, of real spiritual in- 
sight, and even interest, owing to their too great devotion 
to things of sense and their long slavery to the dead letter 
of dogma and rituahsm. But the strongest reason for it lies 
in the fact that real Theosophy has ever been kept secret. 

Inq. — You have brought fo^^ward proofs that such secrecy 
has existed; but what was the real cause for it? 

Theo. — The causes for it were : Firstly, the perversity 
of average human nature, and its selfishness, always tending 
to the gratification oi perso7ial desires to the detriment of 
neighbors and next of kin. Such people could never be 
intrusted with divifte secrets. Secondly, their unreHability 
to keep the sacred and divine knowledge from desecration. 
It is the latter which led to the perversion of the most sub- 
lime truths and symbols, and to the gradual transformation 
of things spiritual into anthropomorphic, concrete, and gross 
imagery — in other words, to the dwarfing of the God-idea 
and to idolatry. 

THEOSOPHY IS NOT BUDDHISM, 

Inq. — Yo7i are often spoke?i of as " Esoteric Buddhists.^^ 
Are you ^ theu^ all followers of Gautama Buddha? 

Theo. — No more than musicians are all followers of 
Wagner. Some of us are Buddhists by religion ; yet there 
are far more Hindus and Brahmans than Buddhists among 
us, and more Christian-born Europeans and Americans than 
converted Buddhists. The mistake has arisen from a mis- 
understanding of the real meaning of the title of Mr. A. P. 
Sinnett's excellent work, Esoteric Buddhism, The last word 
ought to have been spelled with one instead of two d'Sy for 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 13 

then Budhism would have meant what it was intended for, 
namely, '' Wisdom- Religion " (from bodha^ bodhi, *' intelli- 
gence," *' wisdom "), instead of Buddhisiii^ Gautama^s re- 
ligious philosophy. Theosophy, as already said, is the 
Wisdom-Religion. 

Inq. — What is the difference between Buddhism, thereIigio?i 
fou7ided by the Priiice of Kapilavastu^ and Budhism, the '' Wis- 
dom- Religio7i " which you say is synonymous with Theosophy? 

Theo. — Just the same difference as there is between the 
later rituahsm and dogmatic theology of the churches and 
sects, and the secret teachings of Christ, which are called 
'' the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." Buddha means 
the '' Enhghtened " by Bodha, or Understanding, Wisdom. 
This has passed root and branch into the esoteric tesLchings 
that Gautama imparted to his chosen Arhats only. 

Inq. — But some Orientalists deny that Buddha ever taught 
any esoteric doctrine at all, 

Theo. — They may as well deny that Nature has any 
hidden secrets for men of science. Further on I will prove 
it by Buddha's conversation with his disciple Ananda. His 
esoteric teachings were simply the Gupta-Vidya, or secret 
knowledge, of the ancient Brahmans, the key to which their 
modern successors have, with few exceptions, completely 
lost. And this Vidya has passed into what is now known 
as the inner teachings of the Mahayana school of North- 
ern Buddhism. Those who deny it are simply ignorant 
pretenders to Orientalism. I advise you to read the Rev. 
Mr. Edklns's Chinese Buddhisifi — especially the chapters on 
the exoteric and esoteric schools and teachings — and then 
compare the testimony of the whole ancient world upon 
the subject. 

Inq. — But are not the ethics of Theosophy identical with 
those taught by Buddha ? 



14 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Theo. — Certainly ; because these ethics are the soul of 
the Wisdom-Religion, and were once the common property 
of the Initiates of all nations. But Buddha was the first to 
embody these lofty ethics in his public teachings, and to 
make them the foundation and the very essence of his 
public system. It is herein that lies the immense differ- 
ence between exoteric Buddhism and every other religion. 
For while in other religions ritualism and dogma hold the 
first and most important place, in Buddhism it is the ethics 
which have always been the most insisted upon. This ac- 
counts for the resemblance, amounting almost to identity, 
between the ethics of Theosophy and those of the religion 
of Buddha. 

Inq. — Are there any great points of difference? 

Theo. — One great distinction between Theosophy and 
exoteric Buddhism is that the latter, represented by the 
Southern Church, entirely denies {a) the existence of any 
Deity, and (h) any conscious post-mortem life, or even 
any self-conscious surviving individuality in man. Such, at 
least, is the teaching of the Siamese sect, now considered as 
ih^ purest form of exoteric Buddhism. And it is so, if we 
refer only to Buddha's public teachings ; the reason for such 
reticence on his part I will give further on. But the schools 
of the Northern Buddhist Church, estabhshed in those 
countries to which his initiated Arhats retired after the 
Master's death, teach all that is now called Theosophical 
doctrines, because they form part of the knowledge of the 
Initiates — thus proving how the truth has been sacrificed to 
the dead letter by the too-zealous orthodoxy of Southern 
Buddhism. But how much grander and more noble, more 
philosophical and scientific, even in its dead letter, is this 
teaching than that of any other church or religion! Yet 
Theosophy is not Buddhism. 



II. 

EXOTERIC AND ESOTERIC THEOSOPHY. 



WHAT THE MODERN THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IS 

NOT 

Inq. — Your doc tr 'me s^ theii^ are not a revival of Buddhism^ 
nor are they entirely copied fro7n the Neoplatonic Theosophy ? 

Theo. — They are not. But to these questions I cannot 
give you a. better answer than by quoting from a paper read 
on '' Theosophy " by Dr. J. D. Buck, F.T.S., before the last 
Theosophical Convention, at Chicago, 111. (April, 1889). 
No living Theosophist has better expressed and understood 
the real essence of Theosophy than our honored friend 
Dr. Buck. 

The Theosophical Society was organized for the purpose of promul- 
gating the Theosophical doctrines, and for the promotion of the Theo- 
sophic life. The present Theosophical Society is not the first of its 
kind. I have a volume entitled Theosophical Transactions of the 
Philadelphian Society, published in London in 1697 ; and another with 
the following title : Introdiictioji to Theosophy ; or, The Science of the 
Mystery of Christ, that is, of Deity, Nature, and Creature ; embracing 
the Philosfphy of all the Workijtg Powers- of life, Magical and Spir- 
itual, and forming a Practical Guide to the Subliniest Purity, Sanctity, 
and Evangelical Perfection ; also to the Attain7nent of Divine Vision, 
and the Holy Angelic Arts, Potencies, and other Prerogatives of ihe 
Regeneration ; published in London in 1855. The following is the 
dedication of this volume : 

** To the students of Universities, Colleges, and Schools of Chris- 

15 



16 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

tendom : To Professors of Metaphysical, Mechanical, and Natural 
Science in all its forms : To men and women of education generally, of 
fundamental orthodox Faith : To Deists, Arians, Unitarians, Sweden- 
borgians, and other defective and ungrounded creeds, rationalists and 
skeptics of every kind : To just-minded and enlightened Mohammedans, 
Jews, and Oriental Patriarch-Religionists : but especially to the gospel 
minister and missionary, whether to the barbaric or intellectual peoples, 
this introduction to Theosophy, or the science of the ground and mys- 
tery of all things, is most humbly and affectionately dedicated." 

In the following year (1856) another volume was issued, royal octavo, 
of six hundred pages, diamond type, of Theosophical Miscellanies, Of 
the last-named work five hundred copies only were issued, for gratu- 
itous distribution to libraries arid universities. These earlier move- 
ments, of which there were many, originated within the church, with 
persons of great piety and earnestness, and of unblemished character ; 
and all of these writings were in orthodox form, using the Christian 
expressions, and, like the writings of the eminent churchman William 
Law, would only be distinguished by the ordinary reader for their 
great earnestness and piety. These were one and all but attempts to 
derive and explain the deeper meanings and original import of the 
Christian Scriptures, and to illustrate and unfold the Theosophic life. 
These works were soon forgotten, and are now generally unknown. 
They sought to reform the clergy and revive genuine piety, and were 
never welcomed. That one word *' heresy" was sufficient to bury 
them in the limbo of all such Utopias. At the time of the Reformation 
John Reuchlin made a similar attempt with the same result, though he 
was the intimate and trusted friend of Luther. Orthodoxy never de- 
sired to be informed and enlightened. These reformers were informed, 
as was Paul by Festus, that too much learning had made them mad, 
and that it would be dangerous to go further. Passing by the verbiage 
— which was partly a matter of habit and education with these writers, 
and partly due to religious restraint through secular power — and com- 
ing to the core of the matter, these writings were Theosophical in the 
strictest sense, and pertained solely to man's knowledge of his own 
nature and the higher life of the soul. The present Theosophical 
movement has sometimes been declared to be an attempt to convert 
Christendom to Buddhism, which means simply that the word 
'* heresy " has lost its terrors and relinquished its power. Individ- 
uals in every age have more or less clearly apprehended the Theo- 
sophical doctrines and wrought them into the fabric of their lives. 
These doctrines belong exclusively to no religion, and are confined to 
no society or time. They are the birthright of every human soul. Such 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHW 17 

a thing as orthodoxy must be wrought out by each individual according 
to his nature and his needs, and according to his varying experience. 
This may explain why those who have imagined Theosophy to be a 
new religion have hunted in vain for its creed and its ritual. Its creed 
is Loyalty to Truth, and its ritual '' To honor every truth by use." 

How little this principle of Universal Brotherhood is understood by 
the masses of mankind, how seldom its transcendent importance is rec- 
ognized, may be seen in the diversity of opinion and fictitious interpreta- 
tions regarding the Theosophical Society. This society was organized 
on this one principle, the essential Brotherhood of Man, as herein 
briefly outlined and imperfectly set forth. It has been assailed as 
Buddhistic and antichristian, as though it could be both these 
together, when both Buddhism and Christianity, as set forth by their 
inspired founders, make Brotherhood the one essential of doctrine and 
of life. Theosophy has been also regarded as something new under 
the sun, or at best as old mysticism masquerading under a new name. 
While it is true that many societies founded upon and united to sup- 
port the principles of altruism or essential Brotherhood have borne vari- 
ous names, it is also true that many havfe also been called Theosophic, 
and with principles and aims as the present society bearing that name. 
With these societies, one and all, the essential doctrine has been the 
same, and all else has been incidental, though this does not obviate the 
fact that many persons are attracted to the incidentals who overlook 
or ignore the essentials. 

No better or more explicit answer — by a man who is 
one of our most esteemed and earnest Theosophists — 
could be given to your questions. 

Inq. — Which system do you prefer or follow^ hi that case, 
besides Buddhistic ethics ? 

Theo. — None, and all. We hold to no religion and to 
no philosophy in particular; we cull the good we find in 
each. But here, again, it must be stated that, like all other 
ancient systems, Theosophy is divided into exoteric and 
esoteric sections. 

Inq. — What is the difference ? 

Theo. — The members of the Theosophical Society at 
large are free to profess whatever rehgion or philosophy 



18 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

they like — or none, if they so prefer — provided they are in 
sympathy with, and ready to carry out one or more of, the 
three objects of the association. The Society is a philan- 
thropic and scientific body for the propagation of the idea 
of brotherhood on practical instead of theoretical Hnes. 
The Fellows may be Christians or Mussulmans, Jews or 
Parsis, Buddhists or Brahmans, Spiritualists or materialists 
— it does not matter ; but every member must be either a 
philanthropist or a scholar, a searcher into Aryan and other 
old literature or a psychic student. In short, he has to help, 
if he can, in the carrying out of at least one of the objects 
of the program. Otherwise he has no reason for becoming 
a Fellow. Such are the majority of the exoteric Society, 
composed of ''attached" and "unattached" members.* 
These may or may not become Theosophists de facto. 
Members they are, by virtue of their having joined the So- 
ciety ; but the latter cannot make a Theosophist of one who 
has no sense for the divine fitness of things, or of him who 
understands Theosophy in his own — if the expression may 
be used — sectarian and egotistic way. " Handsome is as 
handsome does" could be paraphrased in this case, and 
made to run, '' Theosophist is who Theosophy does." 

THEOSOPHISTS AND MEMBERS OF THE THEOSOPH- 
ICAL SOCIETY. 

Inq. — This applies to lay me^nbers^ as I tmderstand. And 
what of those who pursue the esoteric study of Theosophy — 
are they the real Theosophists? 

Theo. — Not necessarily, until they have proven them- 
selves to be such. They have entered the inner group and 

* An "attached" member means one who has joined some particular Branch of 
the Theosophical Society. An "unattached," one who belongs to the Society at 
large, has his diploma from the Headquarters (Adyar, Madras), but is connected with 
no Branch or Lodge. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 19 

pledged themselves to carry out, as strictly as they can, the 
rules of the occult body. This is a difficult undertaking, 
as the foremost rule of all is the entire renunciation of one's 
personality — i.e., a pledged member has to become a thor- 
ough altruist, never to think of himself, and to forget his 
own vanity and pride in the thought of the good of his 
fellow-creatures, besides that of his fellow-brothers in the 
esoteric circle. He has to live, if the esoteric instructions 
shall profit him, a Hfe of abstinence in everything, of self- 
denial and strict morality, doing his duty by all men. The 
few real Theosophists in the Theosophical Society are 
among these members. This does not imply that outside 
of the Theosophical Society and the inner circle there are 
no Theosophists ; for there are, and more than people know 
of — certainly far more than are found among the lay mem- 
bers of the Theosophical Society. 

Inq. — -Then what is the good of joining the so-called Theo- 
sophical Society in that case ? Where is the incentive ? 

Theo. — None, except the advantage of getting esoteric 
instructions, the genuine doctrines of the Esoteric Phi- 
losophy, and, if the real program is carried out, deriving 
much help from mutual aid and sympathy. Union is 
strength and harmony, and well-regulated simultaneous 
efforts produce wonders. This has been the secret of all 
associations and communities since mankind existed. 

Inq. — But why could not a man of well-balanced mind 
and singleness of purpose^ one^ say, of indomitable energy and 
perseverance, become an Occultist, and even an Adept, if he 
works alone ? 

Theo. — He may; but there are ten thousand chances 
against one that he will fail. For one reason out of many 
others, no books on Occultism or Theurgy exist in our day 
which give out the secrets of Alchemy or medieval The- 



20 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

osophy in plain language. All are symbolical or in para- 
bles ; and as the key to these has been lost for ages in the 
West, how can a man learn the correct meaning of what he 
is reading and studying? Therein lies the greatest danger 
— one that leads to unconscious black magic or the most 
helpless mediumship. He who has not an Initiate for a 
Master had better leave the dangerous study alone. Look 
around you and observe. While two thirds of '' civilized '* 
society ridicule the mere notion that there is anything in 
Theosophy, Occultism, Spiritualism, or in the Kabalah, the 
other third is composed of the most heterogeneous and 
opposite elements. Some believe in the mystical and even 
in the supernatural (!), but each beheves in his own way. 
Others will rush single-handed into the study of the Kabalah, 
Psychism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, or some form or another 
of Mysticism. Result : no two men think alike, no two 
are agreed upon any fundamental occult principles, though 
many are those who claim for themselves the Ultima Thule 
of knowledge, and would make outsiders believe that they 
are full-blown Adepts. Not only is there no scientific and 
accurate knowledge of Occultism accessible in the West — 
not even of true Astrology, the only branch of Occultism 
which, in its exoteric teachings, has definite laws and a defi- 
nite system — but no one has any idea of what real Occult- 
ism means. Some limit ancient wisdom to the Kabalah 
and the Jewish Zohar^ which each interprets in his own 
way according to the dead letter of the rabbinical methods. 
Others regard Swedenborg or Bohme as the ultimate ex- 
pressions of the highest wisdom ; while others, again, see in 
Mesmerism the great secret of ancient magic. One and 
all of those who put their theory into practice are rapidly 
drifting, through ignorance, into black magic. Happy are 
those who escape from it, as they have neither test nor 
criterion by which they can distinguish between the true 
and the false. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 21 

Inq. — Are we to miderstand that the inner group of the 
Theosophical Society claims to learn what it does from real 
Initiates or Masters of Esoteric Wisdom ? 

Theo. — Not directly. The personal presence of such 
Masters is not required. Suffice it if they give instructions 
to some of those who have studied under their guidance for 
years and devoted their whole lives to their service. Then, 
in turn, these can give out the knowledge so imparted to 
others who had no such opportunity. A portion of the true 
sciences is better than a mass of undigested and misunder- 
stood learning. An ounce of gold is worth a ton of dust. 

Inq. — But how is one to know whether the ounce is real 
gold or only a counterfeit ? 

Theo. — A tree is known by its fruit, a system by its re- 
sults. When our opponents are able to prove to us that 
any solitary student of Occultism throughout the ages has 
become a saintly Adept hke Ammonius Saccas, or even a 
Plotinus, or a Theurgist like lamblichus, or achieved feats 
such as are claimed to have been done by St. Germain, 
without any Master to guide him, and all this without being 
a medium, a self-deluded psychic, or a charlatan, then 
shall we confess oiu-selves mistaken. But till then Theos- 
ophists prefer to follow the proven natural law of the tradi- 
tion of the Sacred Science. There are mystics who have 
made great discoveries in chemistry and physical sciences, 
almost bordering on Alchemy and Occultism ; others who, 
by the sole aid of their genius, have rediscovered portions, 
if not the whole, of the lost alphabets of the ''mystery lan- 
guage," and are therefore able to read correctly Hebrew 
scrolls ; others still who, being seers, have caught wonderful 
glimpses of the hidden secrets of Nature. But all these are 
specialists. One is a theoretical inventor, another a Hebrew 
— i.e., a sectarian Kabahst — a third a Swedenborg of mod- 
em times, denying all and everything outside of his own par- 



22 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ticular science or religion. Not one of them can boast of 
having produced a universal or even a national benefit 
thereby, or a benefit even to himself. With the exception 
of a few healers — of that class which the Royal College of 
Physicians or Surgeons would call quacks — none have helped 
with their science humanity, or even a number of men of 
the same community. Where are the Chaldees of old — 
those who wrought marvelous cures, '' not by charms, but 
by simples " ? Where is an Apollonius of Tyana, who healed 
the sick and raised the dead under any climate and circum- 
stances? We know some specialists of the former class even 
in Europe, but of the latter only in Asia, where the secret 
of the Yogi — '' to live in death " — is still preserved. 

Inq. — Is the productio7i of such healing Adepts the ami of 
Theosophy ? 

Theo. — Its aims are several ; but the most important are 
those which are likely to lead to the relief of human suffer- 
ing imder any or every form, moral as well as physical. 
And we believe the former to be far more important than 
the latter. Theosophy has to inculcate ethics; it has to 
purify the soul if it would relieve the physical body, whose 
ailments, save cases of accidents, are all hereditary. It is 
not by studying Occultism for selfish ends — for the gratifi- 
cation of one's personal ambition, pride, or vanity — that 
one can ever reach the true goal of helping suffering man- 
kind. Nor is it by studying one single branch of the 
Esoteric Philosophy that a man becomes an Occultist, but 
by studying, if not mastering, them all. 

Inq. — Is help, then, to reach this most imp 07't ant aim given 
only to those who study the esoteric sciences ? 

Theo. — Not at all. Every lay member is entitled to 
general instruction if he only wants it ; but few are willing 
to become what is called ''working members," and most 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 23 

prefer to remain the '' drones " of Theosophy. Let it be 
understood that private research is encouraged in the 
Theosophical Society, provided it does not infringe the 
Umit which separates the exoteric from the esoteric, the 
blind from the co?iscious magic. 



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEOSOPHY AND 
OCCULTISM, 

Inq. — Yon speak of Theosophy and Occultis7n; are they 
identical ? 

Theo. — By no means. A man may be a very good 
Theosophist indeed, whether in or outside of the Society, 
without being in any way an Occultist. But no one can 
be a true Occultist without being a real Theosophist ; other- 
wise he is simply a black magician, whether conscious or 
unconscious. 

Inq. — What do you mean ? 

Theo. — I have said already that a true Theosophist 
must put in practice the loftiest moral ideal; must strive 
to realize his unity with the whole of humanity, and work 
ceaselessly for others. Now, if an Occultist does not do 
all this, he must act selfishly for his own personal benefit ; 
and if he has acquired more practical power than other 
ordinary men, he becomes forthwith a far more dangerous 
enemy to the world and those around him than the average 
mortal. This is clear. 

Inq. — Then is an Occultist si7nply a man who possesses 
more power than other people ? 

Theo. — Far more — if he is a practical and really learned 
Occultist, and not one only in name. Occult sciences are 
not^ as described in encyclopedias, '' those imaginary sciences 
of the middle ages which related to the supposed action or 



24 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY. 

influence of occult qualities or supernatural powers, as 
alchemy, magic, necromancy, and astrology," for they are 
real, actual, and very dangerous sciences. They teach the 
secret potency of things in Nature, developing and culti- 
vating the hidden powers '' latent in man," thus giving him 
tremendous advantages over more ignorant mortals. Hyp- 
notism — now become so common, and a subject of serious 
scientific inquiry — is a good instance in point. Hypnotic 
power has been discovered almost by accident, the way to 
it having been prepared by Mesmerism. And now an able 
hypnotizer can do almost anything with it, from forcing a 
man, unconsciously to himself, to play the fool, to making 
him commit a crime — often by proxy for the hypnotizer, 
and for the latter's benefit. Is not this a terrible power if 
left in the hands of unscrupulous persons ? And please to 
remember that this is only one of the minor branches of 
Occultism. 

Inq. — But are not all these occult sciences^ magic ^ and sor- 
cery considered by the most cultured a?td learned people as 
relics of ancient ignorance and superstitio?t ? 

Theo. — Let me remind you that this remark of yours 
cuts both ways. The ^' most cultured and learned " among 
you regard also Christianity and every other religion as a 
relic of ignorance and superstition. People begin to be- 
lieve now, at any rate, in Hypnotism, and some — even of 
the most cultured — in Theosophy and phenomena. But 
who among them, except preachers and blind fanatics, will 
confess to a belief in biblical miracles ? And this is where 
the point of difference comes in. There are very good and 
pure Theosophists who may believe in the supernatural — 
divine " miracles " included — but no Occultist will do so. 
For an Occultist practises scientific Theosophy, based on 
accurate knowledge of Nature's secret workings; but a 
Theosophist, practising the powers called abnormal, minus 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 25 

the light of Occultism, will simply tend toward a dangerous 
form of mediumship ; because, although holding to Theos- 
ophy and its highest conceivable code of ethics, he practises 
it in the dark, on sincere but blind faith. Any one, Theos- 
ophist or Spiritualist, who attempts to cultivate one of the 
branches of occult science — e.g., Hypnotism, Mesmerism, or 
even the secrets of producing physical phenomena — without 
the knowledge of the philosophic ratmiale of those powers, 
is like a rudderless boat launched on a stormy ocean. 



\y 



THE DIFEERENCE BETWEEN THE O SOPHY AND 
SPIRITUALISM. 

Inq. — -But do you not believe in Spiritualism ? 

Theo. — If by '' Spiritualism '^ you mean the explanation 
which Spirituahsts give of some abnormal phenomena, then 
decidedly we do not. They maintain that these manifesta- 
tions are all produced by the '' spirits '* of departed mortals 
— generally their relatives — who return to earth, they say, to 
communicate with those they have loved or to whom they 
are attached. We deny this point-blank. We assert that 
the spirits of the dead cannot return to earth, save in rare 
and exceptional cases, of which I may speak later ; nor do 
they communicate with men except by entirely subjective 
means. That which appears objectively is only the phantom 
of the ex-physical man. But in psychic and, so to say, 
spiritual Spiritualism we do believe most decidedly. 

Inq. — Do you reject the phenomena also ? 

Theo. — Assuredly not — save cases of conscious fraud. 

Inq. — How do you account for them^ then ? 

Theo. — In many ways. The causes of such manifesta- 
tions are by no means so simple as the Spiritualists would 
like to believe. Foremost of all, the deus ex machind of the 



26 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY. 

so-called ''materializations" is usually the astral body or 
" double " of the medium or of some one present. This 
astral body is also the producer or operating force in the 
manifestations of slate-writing, " Davenport "4ike manifes- 
tations, and so on. 

Inq. — You say '' usually "/ then what is it that produces 
the rest? 

Theo. — That depends on the nature of the manifes- 
tations. Sometimes the astral remains, the kamalokic 
'' shells " of the vanished personalities that were ; at other 
times, elementals. ''Spirit'' is a word of manifold and 
wide significance. I really do not know what Spirituahsts 
mean by the term ; but what we understand them to claim 
is that the physical phenomena are produced by the reincar- 
nating Ego, the spiritual and immortal individuality. And 
this hypothesis we entirely reject. The conscious individu- 
ality of the disembodied caniiot materialize^ nor can it return 
from its own mental devachanic sphere to the plane of ter- 
restrial objectivity. 

Inq. — But many of the communications received from the 
^^ spirits " show not o?ily intelligence, but a knowledge of facts 
not known to the mediu7n, and sometiines even 7iot consciously 
present to the mind of the investigator or any of those who 
compose the audience, 

Theo. — This does not necessarily prove that the intelli- 
gence and knowledge you speak of belong to spirits, or 
emanate from disembodied souls. Somnambulists have been 
known to compose music and poetry and to solve mathe- 
matical problems while in their trance state, without having 
ever learned music or mathematics. Others answered in- 
telligently questions put to them, and even, in several cases, 
spoke languages, such as Hebrew and Latin, of which they 
were entirely ignorant when awake — all this in a state of 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 27 

profound sleep. Will you, then, maintain that this was 
caused by ''spirits"? 

Inq. — But how would you explain it ? 

Theo. — We assert that, the divine spark in man being 
one and identical in its essence with the Universal Spirit, 
our "spiritual Self" is practically omniscient, but that it 
cannot manifest its knowledge, owing to the impediments 
of matter. Now the more these impediments are removed 
— in other words, the more the physical body is paralyzed 
as to its own independent activity and consciousness, as in 
deep sleep or deep trance, or, again, in illness — the more 
fully can the in7ier Self manifest on this plane. This is our 
explanation of those truly wonderful phenomena of a higher 
order in which undeniable intelligence and knowledge are 
exhibited. As to the lower order of manifestations — such 
as physical phenomena and the platitudes and common talk 
of the general '' spirit ''—to explain even the most important 
of the teachings we hold upon the subject would take up 
more space and time than can be allotted to it at present. 
We have no desire to interfere with the belief of the Spirit- 
ualists any more than with any other belief. The onus pro- 
bandi must fall on the believers in "spirits." And at the 
present moment, while still convinced that the higher kind 
of manifestations occur through disembodied souls, the 
leaders of the Spiritualists, and the most learned and intelli- 
gent among them, are the first to confess that not all the 
phenomena are produced by spirits. Gradually they will 
come to recognize the whole truth ; but meanwhile we have 
no right nor desire to proselytize them to our views — the 
less so, as in the cases of purely psychic and spiritual mani- 
festations we believe in the intercommunication of the spirit 
of the living man with that of disembodied personalities. 

We say that in such cases it is not the spirits of the dead 
who descend on earth, but the spirits of the living that ascend 



28 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

to the pure spiritual souls. In truth there is neither ascend- 
ing nor descending^ but a change of state or condition for the 
medium. The body of the latter becoming paralyzed or 
entranced, the spiritual Ego is free from its trammels, and 
finds itself on the same plane of consciousness as the dis- 
embodied spirits. Hence, if there is any spiritual attrac- 
tion between the two, they can communicate^ as often occurs 
in dreams. The difference between a mediumistic and a 
non-sensitive nature is this : the liberated spirit of a medium 
has the opportunity and facility of influencing the passive 
organs of its entranced physical body, and making them 
act, speak, and write at its will. The Ego can make it re- 
peat, echo-like, and in human language, the thoughts and 
ideas of the disembodied entity as well as its own. But 
the non-receptive or non-sensitive organism of one who is 
very positive cannot be so influenced. Hence, although 
there is hardly a human being whose Ego does not hold free 
intercourse, during the sleep of its body, with those whom 
it loved and lost, yet, on account of the positiveness and 
non-receptivity of its physical envelope and brain, no recol- 
lection, or a very dim, dreamlike remembrance, lingers in 
the memory of the person when once awake. 

Inq. — This 77ieans that you reject the philosophy of Spirit- 
ualism in toto ? 

Theo. — If by '' philosophy " you mean its crude theories, 
we do. But it has no philosophy, in truth. The best, the 
most intellectual and earnest defenders of Spiritualism say 
so. Their fundamental and only unimpeachable truth — 
namely, that phenomena occur through mediums controlled 
by invisible forces and intelligences — no one, except a blind 
materialist of the Huxley " big-toe " school, will or can deny. 
With regard to their philosophy, however, let me quote to 
you what the able editor of Light — than whom the Spirit- 
ualists will find no wiser or more devoted champion — says 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 29 

of them and their philosophy. This is what '' M.A. Oxon.," 
one of the very few philosophical Spiritualists, writes, with 
respect to their lack of organization and blind bigotry : 

. It is worth while to look steadily at this point, for it is of vital mo- 
ment. We have an experience and a knowledge beside which all other 
knowledge is comparatively insignificant. The ordinary Spiritualist 
waxes wroth if any one ventures to impugn his assured knowledge of 
the future and his absolute certainty of the life to come. Where other 
men have stretched forth feeble hands groping into the dark future, he 
walks boldly as one who has a chart and knows his way. Where other 
men have stopped short at a pious aspiration, or have been content with 
a hereditary faith, it is his boast that he knows what they only believe, 
and that out of his rich stores he can supplement the fading faiths built 
only upon hope. He is magnificent in his dealings with man's most 
cherished expectations. * ' You hope, " he seems to say, ' * for that which 
I can demonstrate. You have accepted a traditional belief in what I 
can experimentally prove according to the strictest scientific method. 
The old beliefs are fading; come out from them and be separate. 
They contain as much falsehood as truth. Only by building on a sure 
foundation of demonstrated fact can your superstructure be stable. All 
round you old faiths are toppling. Avoid the crash and get you out." 
When one comes to deal with this magnificent person in a practical 
way, what is the result? Very curious and very disappointing. He 
is so sure of his ground that he takes no trouble to ascertain the inter- 
pretation which others put upon his facts. The wisdom of the ages 
has concerned itself with the explanation of what he rightly regards as 
proven ; but he does not turn a passing glance on its researches. He 
does not even agree altogether with his brother Spiritualist. It is the 
story over again of the old Scotch body who, together with her hus- 
band, formed a ** kirk." They had exclusive keys to heaven, or rather 
she had, for she was *'na certain aboot Jamie." So the infinitely 
divided and subdivided and re-subdivided sects of Spiritualists shake 
their heads, and are *' na certain aboot " one another. Again, the col- 
lective experience of mankind is solid and unvarying on this point that 
union is strength and disunion a source of weakness and failure. 
Shoulder to shoulder, drilled and disciplined, a rabble becomes an 
army, each man a match for a hundred of the untrained men that may 
be brought against it. Organization in every department of man's 
work means success, saving of time and labor, profit and development. 
Want of method, want of plan, haphazard work, fitful energy, undis- 



30 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ciplined effort — these mean bungling failure. The voice of humanity 
attests the truth. Does the Spiritualist accept the verdict and act on 
the conclusion? Verily, no. He refuses to organize. He is a law 
unto himself, and a thorn in the side of his neighbors.* 

Inq. — I was told thai the Theosophical Society was origi- 
nally founded to crush Spiritualis77i and belief in the survival 
of the ifidividuality in 7nan, 

Theo. — You are misinformed. Our beliefs are all 
founded on that immortal individuality. But then, like 
so many others, you confuse persoiiality with individuality. 
Your Western psychologists do not seem to have estabhshed 
any clear distinction between the two. Yet it is precisely 
that difference which gives the key-note to the understand- 
ing of Eastern philosophy, and which lies at the root of 
the divergence between the Theosophical and Spiritualistic 
teachings. And though it may draw upon us still more 
the hostility of some Spiritualists, yet I must state here that 
it is Theosophy which is the true and unalloyed spiritual- 
ism, while the modern scheme of that name is, as now 
practised by the masses, simply transcendental materialism. 

Inq. — Please explain your idea more clearly, 

Theo. — What I mean is that, though our teachings insist 
upon the identity of spirit and matter, and though we say 
that spirit is potential matter, and matter simply crystallized 
spirit, just as ice is solidified steam, yet, since the original 
and eternal condition of the All is not spirit, but '' super- 
spirit," so to speak — visible and solid matter being simply 
its periodical manifestation — we maintain that the term 
*' spirit " can only be applied to the true individuality, 

Inq. — But what is the distinction betwee7i this '' true in- 
dividuality^^ and the "/" or ^^ Ego"" of which we are all 
conscious ? 

* Light, June 22, 1889. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 31 

Theo. — Before I can answer you, we must agree upon 
what you mean by '' I " or '' Ego." We distinguish be- 
tween the simple fact of self-consciousness — the simple feel- 
ing that *' I am I " — and the complex thought that '' I am 
Mr. Smith or Mrs. Brown." Believing as we do in a series 
of births for the same Ego, or reincarnation, this distinction 
is the fundamental pivot of the whole idea. You see '^ Mr. 
Smith " really means a long series of daily experiences strung 
together by the thread of memory, and forming what '' Mr. 
Smith" calls ''himself." But none of these ''experiences" 
are really the " I " or the Ego, nor do they give " Mr. 
Smith " the feeling that he is himself, for he forgets the 
greater part of his daily experiences, and they produce the 
feeling of egoity in him only while they last. We Theoso- 
phists, therefore, distinguish between this bundle of " ex- 
periences," which we call ih^ false (because so finite and 
evanescent) personality^ and that element in man to which 
the feeling of " I am I " is due. It is this " I am I " which 
we call the true individuality; and we say that this Ego or 
individuality, like an actor, plays many parts on the stage 
of life.* Let us call every new life on earth of the same 
Ego a night on the stage of a theater. One night the actor, 
or Ego, appears as Macbeth, the next as Shylock, the third 
as Romeo, the fourth as Hamlet or King Lear, and so on, 
until he has run through the whole cycle of incarnations. 
The Ego begins his life-pilgrimage as a sprite, an Ariel, or 
a Puck ; he plays the part of a " super " — is a soldier, a ser- 
vant, one of the chorus; rises then to "speaking parts," 
playing leading roles, interspersed with insignificant parts, 
till he finally retires from the stage as Prospero, the 
magician, 

Inq. — / understand. You say, then, that this true Ego 
cannot return to earth after death. But surely the actor is at 

* See further, Section VIII. , "On Individuality and Personality." 



(i 



32 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

liberty^ if he has preserved the sense of his individuality^ to re- 
turfi^ if he likes ^ to the scene of his former actions ? 

Theo. — We say not ; simply because such a return to 
earth would be incompatible with any state of unalloyed 
bliss after death, as I am prepared to prove. We say that 
man suffers so much unmerited misery during his life, 
through the fault of others with whom he is associated, or 
because of his environment, that he is surely entitled to per- 
fect rest and quiet, if not bhss, before taking up again the 
burden of life. However, we can discuss this in detail 
later. 

WHY IS THEOSOPHY ACCEPTED? 

Inq. — I understand to a certaifi extent; hut I see that your 
teachiiigs are far more complicated a?id metaphysical than 
either Spiritualism or cur7mt religious thought. Can you 
tell me^ then^ what has caused this system of Theosophy which 
you support to arouse so much interest and so much animosity 
at the saine time ? 

Theo. — There are several reasons for it, I believe. 
Among other causes that may be mentioned are: (i) The 
great reaction from the crassly materialistic theories now 
prevalent among scientific teachers. (2) General dissatis- 
faction with the artificial theology of the various Christian 
churches and the number of daily increasing and conflict- 
ing sects. (3) An ever-growing perception of the fact that 
the creeds which are so obviously self- and mutually con- 
tradictory cannot be true, and that claims which are unveri- 
fied cannot be real. This natural distrust of conventional 
religions is only strengthened by their complete failure to 
preserve morals and to purify society and the masses. (4) 
A conviction on the part of many, and kfiowledge by a few, 
that there must be somewhere a philosophical and religious 
system which shall be scientific and not merely speculative. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 33 

(5) Finally, perhaps, a belief that such a system must be 
sought for in teachings far antedating any modern faith. 

Inq. — But how did this system come to be put forward just 
now ? 

Theo. — Just because the time was found to be ripe — a 
fact shown by the determined effort of so many earnest 
students to reach the truth, at whatever cost and wherever 
it may be concealed. Seeing this, its custodians permitted 
that some portions at least of that truth should be pro- 
claimed. Had the formation of the Theosophical Society 
been postponed a few years longer, one half of the civilized 
nations would have become by this time rank materialists, 
and the other half anthropomorphists and phenomenalists. 

Inq. — Are we to regard Theosophy i7i any way as a reve- 
latiofi ? 

Theo. — In no way whatever, nor even in the sense of a 
new and direct disclosure from some higher, supernatural, 
or, at least, superhuman beings; but only in the sense of 
an "unveiUng'* of old — very old — truths to minds hitherto 
ignorant of them — ignorant even of the existence and pres- 
ervation of any such archaic knowledge. 

It has become fashionable, especially of late, to deride 
the notion that there ever was in the Mysteries of great 
and civilized peoples, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, or 
Romans, anything but priestly imposture. Even the Rosi- 
crucians were no better than half lunatics, half knaves. 
Numerous books have been written on them; and tyros, 
who had hardly heard the name a few years before, saUied 
out as profound critics and gnostics on the subject of 
Alchemy, the fire-philosophers, and Mysticism in general. 
Yet a long series of Hierophants of Eg3^pt, India, Chaldaea, 
and Arabia, together with the greatest philosophers and 
sages of Greece and the West, are known to have included 
under the designation of Wisdom and Divine Science all 



34 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

knowledge ; for they considered the base and origin of 
every art and science as essentially divine. Plato regarded 
the Mysteries as most sacred ; and Clemens Alexandrinus, 
who had been himself initiated into the Eleusinian Mys- 
teries, has declared that '^ the doctrines taught therein con- 
tained in them the end of all human knowledge." Were 
Plato and Clemens two knaves or two fools, we wonder, 
or — both? 

Inq. — You spoke of ^^ animosity T If truth is as repre- 
sented by Theosophy, why has it met with such opposition, and 
with no general acceptance ? 

Theo. — For many and various reasons again, one of 
which is the hatred felt by men for '' innovations," as they 
call them. Selfishness is essentially conservative, and hates 
being disturbed. It prefers an easy-going, unexacting lie 
to the greatest truth, if the latter requires the sacrifice of 
one^s smallest comfort. The power of mental inertia is 
great in anything that does not promise immediate benefit 
and reward. Our age is preeminently unspiritual and 
matter-of-fact. Moreover, there is the unfamiliar charac- 
ter of Theosophic teachings ; the highly abstruse nature of 
the doctrines, some of which contradict flatly many of the 
human vagaries cherished by sectarians, which have eaten 
into the very core of popular beliefs. If we add to this the 
personal efforts and great purity of life exacted of those who 
would become the disciples of the inner circle, and the very 
limited class to which an entirely unselfish code appeals, 
it will be easy to perceive the reason why Theosophy is 
doomed to such slow, uphill work. It is essentially the 
philosophy of those who suffer, and have lost all hope of 
being helped out of the mire of life by any other means. 
Moreover, the history of any system of belief or morals 
newly introduced into a foreign soil shows that its begin- 
nings were impeded by every obstacle that obscurantism 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 



35 



and selfishness could suggest. *'The crown of the in- 
novator is a crown of thorns'^ indeed! No pulling down 
of old, worm-eaten buildings can be accomplished without 
some danger. 

Inq. — All this refers rather to the ethics and philosophy of 
Theosophy. Can you give me a general idea of the Theosoph- 
ical Society^ its objects and statutes ? 

Theo. — This has never been made secret. Ask, and 
you shall receive accurate answers. 

Inq. — But I heard that you were bound by pledges, 

Theo. — Only in the arcane or esoteric section. 

Inq. — And also^ that some members after leaving did not 
regard themselves bound by them. Are they right ? 

Theo. — This shows that their idea of honor is an imper- 
fect one. How can they be right ? As well said in the 
Path^ our Theosophical organ at New York, treating of such 
a case : '' Suppose that a soldier is tried for infringement of 
oath and discipline, and is dismissed from the service. In 
his rage at the justice he has called down, and of whose 
penalties he was distinctly forewarned, the soldier turns to 
the enemy with false information — a spy and traitor — as a 
revenge upon his former chief, and claims that his punish- 
ment has released him from his oath of loyalty to a cause." 
Is he justified, think you ? Do not you think he deserves 
being called a dishonorable man, a coward? 

Inq. — I believe so; but some think otherwise. 



Theo. — So much the worse for them, 
on this subject later, if you please. 



But we will talk 



III. 



THE WORKING SYSTEM OF THE THEOSOPHICAL 
SOCIETY. 



THE OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY, 

Inq. — What are the objects of the Theosophical Society ? 

Theo. — They are three, and have been so from the be- 
ginning, (i) To form the nucleus of a Universal Brother- 
hood of Humanity without distinction of race, color, sex, 
caste, or creed. (2) To promote the study of Aryan and 
other Scriptures, of the world's religions and sciences, and 
to vindicate the importance of old Asiatic literature, such 
as that of the Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian phi- 
losophies. (3) To investigate the hidden mysteries of Nature 
under every aspect possible, and the psychic and spiritual 
powers latent in man especially. These are, broadly stated, 
the three chief objects of the Theosophical Society. 

Inq. — Can you give me sojne more detailed information 
upon these ? 

Theo. — We may divide each of the three objects into as 
many explanatory clauses as may be found necessary. 

Inq. — Then let us begin with the first. What means 
would you resort to in order to promote such a feeling of 

36 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 37 

Brotherhood a^nong races that are known to be of the most 
diversified religions^ customs^ beliefs^ and modes of thought ? 

Theo. — Allow me to add that which you seem unwilling 
to express. Of course we know that, with the exception of 
two remnants of races — the Parsis and the Jews — every 
nation is divided, not merely against all other nations, but 
even against itself. This is found most prominently among 
the so-called civilized Christian nations. Hence your won- 
der, and the reason why our first object appears to you a 
Utopia. Is it not so? 

Inq. — Well^ yes; but what have you to say against it ? 

Theo. — Nothing against the fact, but much about the 
necessity of removing the causes which make Universal 
Brotherhood a Utopia at present. 

Inq. — What are^ in your view, these causes ? 

Theo. — First and foremost, the natiu-al selfishness of 
human nature. This selfishness, instead of being eradi- 
cated, is daily strengthened and stimulated into a ferocious 
and irresistible feeHng by the present rehgious education, 
which tends not only to encourage, but positively to justify 
it. People's ideas about right and wTong have been entirely 
perverted by the literal acceptance of the Jewish Bible. All 
the unselfishness of the altruistic teachings of Jesus has be- 
come merely a theoretical subject for pulpit oratory; while 
the precepts of practical selfishness taught in the Mosaic 
Bible, against which Christ so vainly preached, have be- 
come ingrained into the innermost hfe of the Western na- 
tions. '' An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," has 
come to be the first maxim of your law. Now, I state 
openly and fearlessly that the perversity of this doctrine 
and of so many others Theosophy alone can eradicate. 



38 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

THE COMMON ORIGIN OF MAN 

Inq. — How ? 

Theo. — Simply by demonstrating on logical, philosoph- 
ical, metaphysical, and even scientific grounds that: {a) 
All men have spiritually and physically the same origin, 
which is the fundamental teaching of Theosophy. (b) As 
mankind is essentially of one and the same essence, and 
that essence is one — infinite, uncreate, and eternal, whether 
we call it God or Nature — nothing, therefore, can affect one 
nation or one man without affecting all other nations and 
all other men. This is as certain and as obvious as that a 
stone thrown into a pond will, sooner or later, set in motion 
every single drop of water therein. 

Inq. — But this is not the teaching of Christy but rather a 
pantheistic notion. 

Theo. — That is where your mistake lies. It is purely 
Christian, although 7iot Judaic, and therefore, perhaps, your 
biblical nations prefer to ignore it. 

Inq. — This is a wholesale and tmjust accusation. Where 
are your proofs for such a stateme?it ? 

Theo. — They are ready at hand. Christ is alleged to 
have said, " Love one another,'^ and " Love your enemies '* ; 
" for if ye love them [only] which love you, what reward 
[or merit] have ye? do not even the pubhcans* the same? 
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than 
others? do not even the pubHcans so ? " These are Christ's 
words. But Genesis (ix. 25) says: ''Cursed be Canaan; a 



* Publicans— regarded as so many thieves and pickpockets in those days. Among 
the Jews the name and profession of a pubHcan was the most odious thing in the world. 
They were not allowed to enter the Temple, and Matthew (xviii. 17) speaks of a hea- 
then and a publican as identical. Yet they were only Roman tax-gatherers, occupying 
the same position as the British officials in India and other conquered countries. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 39 

servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." And, 
therefore, not Christians, but biblical people prefer the law 
of Moses to Christ's law of love. It is upon the Old Testa- 
ment, which panders to all their passions, that they base 
their laws of conquest, annexation, and tyranny over races 
which they call '* inferior.'' What crimes have been com- 
mitted on the strength of this — if taken in its dead-letter 
sense — infernal passage in Genesis, history alone gives us an 
idea, however inadequate.* 

Inq. — I have heard yoic say that the identity of our physical 
origin is proved by science^ that of our spiritual origin by the 
Wisdom- Religio7i. Yet we do notfi?id Darwinists exhibiting 
great fraternal affection. 

Theo. — Just so. This is what shows the deficiency of 
the materialistic systems, and proves that we Theosophists 
are in the right. The identity of our physical origin makes 
no appeal to our higher and deeper feelings. Matter, de- 
prived of its soul and spirit, or its divine essence, cannot 



* ** At the close of the middle ages, slavery, under the power of moral forces, had 
mainly disappeared from Europe ; but two momentous events occurred which overbore 
the moral power working in European society, and let loose a swarm of curses upon 
the earth such as mankind had scarcely ever known. One of these events was the 
first voyaging to a populated and barbarous coast where human beings were a familiar 
article of traffic ; and the other the discovery of a new world, where mines of glittering 
wealth were open, provided labor could be imported to work them. For four hundred 
years men and women and children were torn from all whom they knew and loved, and 
were sold on the coast of Africa to foreign traders ; they were chained below decks — the 
dead often with the living — during the horrible 'middle passage,' and, according to 
Bancroft, an impartial historian, two hundred and fifty thousand out of three and a quar- 
ter millions were thrown into the sea on that fatal passage, while the remainder were 
consigned to nameless misery in the mines, or under the lash in the cane and rice 
fields. The guilt of this great crime rests on the Christian church. * In the name 
of the Most Holy Trinity ' the Spanish government concluded more than ten treaties 
authorizing the sale of five hundred thousand human beings ; in 1562 Sir John Haw- 
kins sailed on his diabolical errand of buying slaves in Africa and selling them in the 
West Indies in a ship which bore the sacred name of Jesus ; while Elizabeth, the 
Protestant queen, rewarded him for his success in this first adventure of Englishmen 
in that inhuman traffic by allowing him to wear as his crest * a demi-Moor in his proper 
color, bound with a cord,' or, in other words, a manacled negro slave." — Conquests 
of the Cross, quoted from the Agnostic Journal. 



40 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY, 

speak to the human heart. But the identity of the soul 
and spirit, of real, immortal man, as Theosophy teaches us, 
once proven and become deep-rooted in our hearts, would 
lead us far on the road of real charity and brotherly good 
will. 

Inq. — But how does Theosophy explai7i the common origin 
of man ? 

Theo. — By teaching that the root of all Nature, objective 
and subjective, and everything else in the universe, visible 
and invisible, is, was, and ever will be one absolute essence, 
from which all starts, and into which everything returns. 
This is Aryan philosophy, fully represented only by the 
Vedanta and the Buddhist system. With this object in 
view, it is the duty of all Theosophists to promote in every 
practical way, and in all countries, the spread of non- 
sectarian education. 

Inq. — What else is to be done besides this ? — on the physi- 
cal plane ^ I mean. 

Theo. — The organization of society depicted by Edward 
Bellamy in his magnificent work Looking Backward admi- 
rably represents the Theosophical idea of what should be 
the first great step toward the full realization of Universal 
Brotherhood. The state of things he depicts falls short of 
perfection, because selfishness still exists and operates in the 
hearts of men. But in the main, selfishness and individual- 
ism have been overcome by the feeling of solidarity and 
mutual brotherhood ; and the scheme of life there described 
reduces the causes tending to create and foster selfishness 
to a minimum. 

Inq. — Then as a Theo sophist you will take part in an effort 
to realize such an ideal? 

Theo. — Certainly; and we have proved it by action. 
Have not you heard of the Nationalist party and clubs 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 41 

which have sprung up in America since the pubhcation of 
Bellamy's book? They are now coming prominently to 
the front, and will do so more and more as time goes on. 
Well, this party and these clubs were started in the first in- 
stance by Theosophists. One of the first, the Nationalist 
Club of Boston, Mass., has Theosophists for president and 
secretary, and the majority of its executive belong to the 
Theosophical Society. In the constitution of all their 
clubs, and of the party they are forming, the influence of 
Theosophy and of the Society is plain; for they all take 
as their basis — their first and fundamental principle — the 
Brotherhood of Humanity as taught by Theosophy. In 
their declaration of principles they state : " The principle of 
the Brotherhood of Humanity is one of the eternal truths 
that govern the world's progress on lines which distinguish 
hmnan nature from brute nature." What can be more 
Theosophical than this ? But it is not enough. What is 
also needed is to impress men with the idea that, if the root 
of mankind is one, then there must also be one truth which 
finds expression in all the various religions — except in the 
Jewish, as you do not find it expressed even in the Kabalah. 

Inq. — TJiis refers to the common origin of religions^ and 
you may be right there. But how does it apply to- practical 
brotherhood on the physical plane ? 

Theo. — First, because that which is true on the meta- 
physical plane must be also true on the physical. Secondly, 
because there is no more fertile source of hatred and strife 
than religious differences. When one party or another 
thinks itself the sole possessor of absolute truth, it becomes 
only natural that it should think its neighbor absolutely in 
the clutches of error or the '^ devil." But once get a man 
to see that none of them has the ivhole truth, but that they 
are mutually complementary ; that the complete truth can 
be found only in the combined views of all, after that which 



42 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

is false in each of them has been sifted out — then true 
brotherhood in rehgion will be estabhshed. The same ap- 
plies in the physical world. 

Inq. — Please explain further, 

Theo. — Take an instance. A plant consists of a root, 
a stem, and many shoots and leaves. As humanity, as a 
whole, is the stem which grows from the spiritual root, so is 
the stem the unity of the plant. Injure the stem and it is 
obvious that every shoot and leaf will suffer. So it is with 
mankind. 

Inq. — Yes ; but if you injure a leaf or a shoot ^ you do not 
injure the whole plant, 

Theo. — And therefore you think that by injuring one 
man you do not injure humanity ? But how Aoyou know ? 
Are you aware that even materialistic science teaches that 
any injury to a plant, however slight, will affect the whole 
course of its future growth and development ? Therefore 
you are mistaken, and the analogy is perfect. If, however, 
you overlook the fact that a cut on the finger may often 
make the whole body suffer, and react on the whole nervous 
system, I would all the more remind you that there may well 
be other spiritual laws, operating on plants and animals as 
well as on mankind, although, as you do not recognize their 
action on plants and animals, you may deny their existence. 

Inq. — What laws do you mean ? 

Theo. — We call them karmic laws; but you will not 
understand the full meaning of the term unless you study 
Occultism. However, my argument does not rest on the 
assumption of these laws, but really on the analogy of the 
plant. Expand the idea, carry it out to a universal appli- 
cation, and you will soon find that in true philosophy every 
physical action has its moral and everlasting effect. Injure 
a man by doing him bodily harm : you may think that his 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 43 

pain and suffering cannot spread by any means to his neigh- 
bors, least of all to men of other nations. We affirm that 
it will, in good time. Therefore we say that unless every 
man is brought to understand, and accept as an axiomatic 
truths that by wronging one man we wrong not only 
ourselves, but the whole of humanity in the long run, 
no brotherly feelings such as preached by all the great re- 
formers — preeminently by Buddha and Jesus — are possible 
on earth. 

OUR OTHER OBJECTS, 

Inq. — Will you now explaiii the methods by which you 
propose to carry out the second object ? 

Theo. — To collect for the hbrary of our Headquarters at 
Adyar, Madras, and by the Fellows of the Branches for their 
local libraries, all the good works upon the world's reli- 
gions that we can ; to put into written form correct infor- 
mation upon the various ancient philosophies, traditions, 
and legends, and disseminate the same in such practicable 
ways as the translation and pubHcation of original works 
of value, and extracts from and commentaries upon the 
same, or the oral instructions of persons learned in their 
respective departments. 

Inq. — And what about the third object, to develop in man 
his latent spiritual or psychic poivers ? 

Theo. — This has to be achieved also by means of publi- 
cations in those places where no lectures and personal 
teachings are possible. Our duty is to keep aUye in man 
his spiritual intuitions; to oppose and counteract — after 
due investigation and proof of its irrational nature — bigotry 
in every form, religious, scientific, or social, and "cant" 
above all, whether as religious sectarianism or as belief in 
miracles or anything supernatural. What we have to do 



44 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

is to seek to obtain knowledge of all the laws of Nature, 
and to diffuse it; to encourage the study of those laws 
least understood by modern people — the so-called Occult 
Sciences, based on the true knowledge of Nature, instead of, 
as at present, on superstitious beliefs based on blind faith 
and authority. Popular folk-lore and traditions, however 
fanciful at times, when sifted, may lead to the discovery of 
long-lost but important secrets of Nature. The Society, 
therefore, aims at pursuing this line of inquiry, in the 
hope of widening the field of scientific and philosophical 
observation. 

ON THE SACREDNESS OF THE PLEDGE. 

Inq. — Have you any ethical system that you carry out in 
the Society ? 

Theo. — The ethics are there, ready and clear enough for 
whomsoever would follow them. They are the essence and 
cream of the world's ethics, gathered from the teachings of 
all the world's great reformers. Therefore you will find rep- 
resented therein Confucius and Zoroaster, Lao-Tze and the 
Bhagavad'Gitd^ the precepts of Gautama Buddha and Jesus 
of Nazareth, of Hillel and his school, as also of Pythagoras, 
Socrates, Plato, and their schools. 

Inq. — Do the members of your Society carry out these pre- 
cepts ? I have heard of great dissensions and quarrels among 
them, 

Theo. — Very naturally, since, although the reform in its 
present shape may be called new, the men and women to 
be reformed are the same human, sinning natures as of old. 
As already said, the earnest working members are few ; but 
many are the sincere and well-disposed persons who try 
their best to live up to the Society's and their own ideals. 
Our duty is to encourage and assist individual Fellows in 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 45 

self-improvement, intellectual, moral, and spiritual ; not to 
blame or condemn those who fail. We have, strictly speak- 
ing, no right to refuse admission to any one — especially in 
the Esoteric Section of the Society, wherein '' he who enters 
is as one newly born." But if any member — his sacred 
pledges on his word of honor and Immortal Self notwith- 
standing — chooses, after that '' new birth," to continue with 
the new man the vices or defects of his old life, and to in- 
dulge in them still in the Society, then, of course, he is more 
than likely to be asked to resign and withdraw, or, in case 
of his refusal, to be expelled. We have the strictest rules 
for such emergencies. 

Inq. — Can some of them he mentioned? 

Theo. — They can. To begin with, no Fellow in the 
Society, whether exoteric or esoteric, has a right to force 
his personal opinions upon another Fellow. This is one of 
the offenses in the Society at large. As regards the inner 
section, now called the Esoteric, the following rules were 
laid down and adopted so far back as 1880: ''No Fellow 
shall put to his selfish use any knowledge communicated to 
him by any member of the first section [now a higher '' de- 
gree "], violation of the rule being punished by expulsion." 
Now, however, before any such knowledge can be imparted, 
the apphcant has to bind himself by a solemn oath not to 
use it for selfish purposes, nor to reveal anything said except 
by permission. 

Inq. — But is a man expelled or resigning fro7n the sec- 
tion free to reveal anything he may have learned^ or to break 
any clause of the pledge he has taken ? 

Theo. — Certainly not. His expulsion or resignation only 
relieves him from the obligation of obedience to the teacher, 
and from that of taking an active part in the work of the 
Society, but surely not from the sacred pledge of secrecy. 



46 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Inq. — Bid is this reasonable and just ? 

Theo. — Most assuredly. To any man or woman with 
the slightest honorable feeling a pledge of secrecy taken 
even on one's word of honor, much more to one's Higher 
Self — the God within — is binding till death. And though 
he may leave the section and the Society, no man or 
woman of honor will think of attacking or injuring a body 
to which he or she has been so pledged. 

Inq. — But is not this going rather far ? 

Theo. — Perhaps so, according to the low standard of the 
present time and morality. But if it does not bind as far 
as this, what use is a pledge at all ? How can any one ex- 
pect to be taught secret knowledge if he is to be at liberty 
to free himself from all the obligations he had taken when- 
ever he pleases ? What security, confidence, or trust would 
ever exist among men if pledges such as this were to have 
no really binding force at all ? Believe me, the law of ret- 
ribution (Karma) would very soon overtake one who so 
broke his pledge; perhaps even as soon as the contempt 
of every honorable man would, even on this physical plane. 
As well expressed in the Path^ July, 1889, just cited on this 
subject : 

A pledge J once taken, is forever binding in both the 7noral and 
the occult worlds. If we break it once and are punished, that does not 
justify us in breaking it again ; and so long as we do, so long will the 
mighty lever of the Law [of Karma] react upon us. 



IV. 



THE RELATIONS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCI- 
ETY TO THEOSOPHY. 



ON SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 

Inq. — Is moral elevation^ then^ the principal thing insisted 
upon ifi the Society ? 

Theo. — Undoubtedly. He who would be a true Theos- 
ophist must bring himself to live as one. 

Inq. — If so, theft, as I remarked before, the behavior of 
some 7nembers strangely belies this fundamental rule, 

Theo. — Indeed it does. But this cannot be helped 
among us, any more than among those who call them- 
selves Christians and act like fiends. This is no fault of 
our statutes and rules, but that of human nature. Even in 
some exoteric public Branches the members pledge them- 
selves on their Higher Self to live the life prescribed by 
Theosophy. They have to bring their Divine Self to guide 
their every thought and action every day and at every 
moment of their lives. A true Theosophist ought " to deal 
justly and walk humbly." 

Inq. — What do you mean by this ? 

Theo. — Simply this : the one Self has to forget itself for 
the many selves, . Let me answer you in the words of a true 

47 



48 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Philaletheian, a Fellow of the Theosophical Society, who 
has beautifully expressed it in the Theosophist : 

What every man needs first is to find himself, and then take an hon- 
est inventory of his subjective possessions ; and, bad or bankrupt as 
it may be, it is not beyond redemption if we set about it in earnest. 

But how many do ? All are willing to work for their own 
development and progress; very few for those of others. 
To quote the same writer again : 

Men have been deceived and deluded long enough ; they must break 
their idols, put away their shams, and go to work for themselves — nay, 
there is one little word too much or too many, for he who works for 
himself had better not work at all ; rather let him work himself for 
others, for all. For every flower of love and charity he plants in his 
neighbor's garden a loathsome weed will disappear from his own, and 
so this garden of the gods — humanity — shall blossom as a rose. In 
all Bibles, all religions, this is plainly set forth ; but designing men 
have at first misinterpreted and finally emasculated, materialized, be- 
sotted them. It does not require a new revelation. Let every man 
be a revelation unto himself. Let once man's immortal spirit take 
possession of the temple of his body, drive out the money-changers and 
every unclean thing, and his own divine humanity will redeem him ; 
for when he is thus at one with himself he will know the ** builder of 
the temple." 

Inq. — This is pure altruism^ I confess, 

Theo. — It is. And if only one Fellow of the Theosoph- 
ical Society out of ten would practise it, ours would be a 
body of elect indeed. But there are those among the out- 
siders who will always refuse to see the essential difference 
between Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, the idea 
and its imperfect embodiment. Such would visit every sin 
and shortcoming of the vehicle — the human body — on the 
pure spirit which sheds thereon its divine light. Is this just 
to either ? They throw stones at an association that tries 
to work up to, and for the propagation of, its ideal with most 
tremendous odds against it. Some vilify the Theosophical 
Society only because it presumes to attempt to do that in 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 49 

which other systems — church and state Christianity pre- 
eminently — have failed most egregiously; others because 
they would fain preserve the existing state of things; 
Pharisees and Sadducees in the seat of Moses, and pub- 
licans and sinners reveling in high places, as under the 
Roman empire during its decadence. Fair-minded people, 
at any rate, ought to remember that the man who does all 
he can does as much as he who has achieved the most in 
this world of relative possibihties. This is a simple truism 
— an axiom supported for believers in the Gospels by the 
parable of the talents, given by their Master: the servant 
who doubled his two talents was rewarded as much as the 
other fellow-servant who had received five. To every man 
it is given '' according to his several abihty." 

Inq. — Yet it is rather difficult to draw the line of demar- 
cation between the abstract and the concrete in this case^ as we 
have only the latter by which to form our judgment. 

Theo. — Then why make an exception for the Theosoph- 
ical Society ? Justice, like charity, ought to begin at 
home. Will you revile and scoff at the Sermon pn the 
Mount because your social, political, and even rehgious 
laws have, so far, not only failed to carry out its precepts 
in their spirit, but even in their dead letter ? Abolish the 
oath in courts, parliament, army, and everywhere, and do 
as the Quakers do, if you will call yourselves Christians. 
Abolish the coiu"ts themselves ; for if you would follow the 
commandments of Christ, you have to give away your cloak 
to him who deprives you of your coat, and turn your left 
cheek to the bully who smites you on the right. '' Resist 
not evil," '' love your enemies, bless them that ciu"se you, 
do good to them that hate you ; " for '' whosoever shall break 
one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach 
men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of 
heaven," and '' whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in 



50 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

danger of hell-fire." And why should you judge, if you 
would not be judged in your turn ? Insist that between 
Theosophy and the Theosophical Society there is no differ- 
ence, and forthwith you lay the system of Christianity and 
its very essence open to the same charges, only in a more 
serious form. 

Inq. — Why more serious ? 

Theo. — Because, while the leaders of the Theosophical 
movement, recognizing fully their shortcomings, try all they 
can to amend their ways and uproot the evil existing in the 
Society, and while their rules and by-laws are framed in the 
spirit of Theosophy, the legislators and the churches of na- 
tions and countries which call themselves Christian do the 
reverse. Our members — even, the worst among them — are 
no worse than the average Christian. Moreover, if the 
Western Theosophists experience so much difficulty in lead- 
ing the true Theosophical life, it is because they are all the 
children of their generation. Every one of them was a 
Christian, bred and brought up in the sophistry of his 
chm'ch, his social customs, and even his paradoxical laws. 
He was this before he became a Theosophist — or rather a 
member of the Theosophical Society, as it cannot be too 
often repeated that between the abstract ideal and its 
vehicle there is a most important difference. 



THE ABSTRACT AND THE CONCRETE. 

Inq. — Please elucidate this difference a little more, 

Theo. — The Society is a great body of men and women, 
composed of the most heterogeneous elements. Theosophy 
in its abstract meaning is Divine Wisdom, or the aggregate 
of the knowledge and wisdom that underlie the universe — 
the homogeneity of Eternal Good ; and in its concrete sense 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 51 

it is the sum total of the same as allotted to man by Nature 
on this earth, and no more. Some members earnestly en- 
deavor to realize and, so to speak, to objectivize Theosophy 
in their hves ; while others desire only to know of, not to 
practise it ; and others still may have joined the Society 
merely out of curiosity or a passing interest, or perhaps, 
again, because some of their friends belong to it. How, 
then, can the system be judged by the standard of those 
who would assume the name without any right to it ? Is 
poetry or its muse to be measured only by those would-be 
poets who afflict our ears ? The Society can be regarded 
as the embodiment of Theosophy only in its abstract 
motives; it can never presume to call itself its concrete 
vehicle so long as human imperfections and weaknesses are 
all represented in its body ; otherwise the Society would be 
only repeating the great error and the overflowing sacrileges 
of the so-called churches of Christ. If Eastern compariso nj 
may be permitted, Theosophy is the shoreless ocean of uni - 
versa l truth, love, and wisdom, reflecting its radiance on 
the earth ; while the Theosophical Society is only a visible 
bub'BTe on that reflection. Theosophy is divine nature, 
visible and invisible, and its Society human nature trying 
to ascend to its divine parent. Theosophy, finally, is the 
fixed, eternal sun, and its Society the evanescent comet try- 
ing to settle in an orbit to become a planet, ever revolving 
within the attraction of the sun of truth. It was formed to 
assist in showing to men that such a thing as Theosophy 
exists, and to help them to ascend toward it by studying 
and assimilating its eternal verities. 

Inq. — I thought you said you had no tenets or doctrines of 
your own ? 

Theo. — Nor have we. The Society has no wisdom of 
its own to support or teach. It is simply the storehouse 
of all the truths uttered by the great seers, Initiates, and 



52 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

prophets of historic and even prehistoric ages — at least, 
as many as it can get. Therefore it is merely the channel 
through which more or less of truth found in the accumu- 
lated utterances of humanity^s great teachers is poured out 
into the world. 

Inq. — But is such truth unreachable outside of the Society ? 
Does not every church claim the saine ? 

Theo. — Not at all. The undeniable existence of great 
Initiates — true ^^ Sons of God " — shows that such wisdom 
was often reached by isolated individuals ; never, however, 
without the guidance of a Master at first. But most of the 
followers of such, when they became Masters in their turn, 
have dwarfed the Catholicism of these teachings into the 
narrow groove of their own sectarian dogmas. The com- 
mandments of a chosen Master alone were then adopted 
and followed, to the exclusion of all others — if followed at 
all, note well, as in the case of the Sermon on the Mount. 
Each religion is thus a bit of the divine truth, made to 
focus a vast panorama of human fancy which claims to 
represent and replace that truth. 

Inq. — But Theosophy, you say, is not a religion ? 

Theo. — Most assuredly it is not, since it is the essence 
of all religion and of absolute truth, a drop of which only 
underlies every creed. To resort once more to metaphor, 
Theosophy on earth is like the white ray of the spectrum, 
and every religion only one of the seven prismatic colors. 
Ignoring all the others, and cursing them as false, every 
special colored ray claims not only priority, but to be that 
white ray itself, and anathematizes even its own tints from 
hght to dark as heresies. Yet as the sun of truth rises 
higher and higher on the horizon of man's perception, and 
each colored ray gradually fades out until it is finally re- 
absorbed in its turn, humanity will at last be cursed no 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 53 

longer with artificial polarizations, but will find itself bath- 
ing in the pure, colorless sunlight of eternal truth. And 
this will be Theosophia. 

Inq. — Your claim is, then, that all the great religions are 
derived fro?n TJieosophy , and that it is by assimilating it that 
the world will be fijially saved from the curse of its great illu- 
sions and er7^ors ? 

Theo. — Precisely so. And we add that our Theosoph- 
ical Society is the humble seed which, if watered and let 
live, will finally produce the Tree of Knowledge of Good 
and Evil which is grafted on the Tree of Life Eternal. 
For it is only by studying the various great rehgions and 
philosophies of humanity, by comparing them dispassion- 
ately and with an unbiased mind, that men can hope to 
arrive at the truth. It is especially by finding out and not- 
ing their various points of agreement that we may achieve 
this result. For no sooner do we arrive — either by study 
or by being taught by some one who knows — at their inner 
meaning than we find, almost in every case, that it expresses 
some great truth in Nature. 

Inq. — We have heard of a golden age that was^ and what 
you describe would be a golden age to be realized at some fu- 
ture day. When shall it be ? 

Theo. — Not before humanity as a whole feels the need 
of it. A maxim in the Persian Javida?t Khirad says: 
"Truth is of two kinds — one manifest and self-evident, 
the other demanding incessantly new demonstrations and 
proofs." It is only when this latter kind of truth becomes 
as universally obvious as it is now dim and therefore liable 
to be distorted by sophistry and casuistry — it is only when 
the two kinds will have become once more one, that all 
people will be brought to see alike. 

Inq. — But surely those few who have felt the need of such 
truths must have made up their minds to believe in something 



54 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

definite ? You tell me that, the Society having no doctrines 
of its oivn, every member may believe as he chooses and accept 
what he pleases. This looks as if the Theosophical Society 
were be?it upon reviving the confusion of languages and beliefs 
of the Tower of Babel of old. Have you no beliefs in common ? 

Theo. — What is meant by the Society having no tenets 
or doctrines of its own is that no special doctrines or behefs 
are obligatory on its members; but of course this appUes 
only to the body as a whole. The Society, as you were 
told, is divided into an outer and an inner body. Those 
who belong to the latter have, of course, a philosophy or, 
if you so prefer it, a religious system of their own. 

Inq. — May we be told what it is ? 

Theo. — We make no secret of it. It was outlined a few 
years ago in the Theosophist and Esoteric Buddhis77i, and 
may be found still more elaborated in The Secret Doctrine, 
It is based on the oldest philosophy of the world, called 
the Wisdom-Rehgion or the Archaic Doctrine. If you like, 
you may ask questions and have them explained. 



V. 

THE FUNDAMENTAL TEACHINGS OF THE- 
OSOPHY. 



ON GOD AND PRAYER. 



Inq. — Do you believe in God ? 

Theo. — That depends upon what you mean by the term. 

Inq. — / mean the God of the Christians^ the Father of 
Jesus ^ and the Creator — the biblical God of Moses ^ in short. 

Theo. — In such a God we do not believe. We reject 
the idea of a personal or an extracosmic and anthropo- 
morphic God, who is but the gigantic shadow of man, and 
not even of man at his best. The God of theology, we say 
— and prove it — is a bundle of contradictions and a logical 
impossibility. Therefore we will have nothing to do with 
him. 

Inq. — State your reasons^ if you please, 

Theo. — They are many, and cannot all receive attention. 
But here are a few. This God is called by his devotees 
infinite and absolute, is he not ? 

Inq. — I believe he is. 

Theo. — Then, if infinite — i.e., limitless — and especially 
if absolute, how can he have a form and be a Creator of 

55 



56 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

anything ? Form implies limitation, and a beginning as 
well as an end ; and in order to create, a Being must think 
and plan. How can the Absolute be supposed to think — 
i.e., have any relation whatever to that which is limited, 
finite, and conditioned ? This is a philosophical and a 
logical absurdity. Even the Hebrew Kabalah rejects such 
an idea, and therefore makes of the one and the Absolute 
Deific Principle an Infinite Unity called Ain Suph.* In 
order to create, the Creator has to become active ; and as 
this is impossible for Absoluteness, the Infinite Principle had 
to be shown becoming the cause of evolution (not creation) 
in an indirect way — i.e., through the emanation from itself 
(another absurdity, due this time to the translators of the 
Kabalah) t of the Sephiroth. 

Inq. — How about those Kaba lists who, while being such, 
still believe i7i Jehovah, or the Tetragravimaton ? 

Theo. — They are at liberty to believe in what they 
please, as their behef or disbelief can hardly affect a self- 
evident fact. The Jesuits tell us that two and two are not 
always four to a certainty, since it depends on the will of 
God to make 2 x 2 = 5. Shall we accept their sophistry 
for all that ? 

Inq. — Then you are atheists? 

Theo. — Not that we know of, and not unless the epithet 
of ''atheist" is to be applied to all those who disbelieve 
in an anthropomorphic God. We believe in a Universal 
Divine Principle, the root of all, from which all proceeds, 



* Ain Suph, P\')D rK>='^0 TraVz^aireipOV, the Endless, or Boundless, in and 
with Nature, the Non-existent which IS, but is not a Being. 

t How can the non-active eternal principle emanate or emit ? The Parabrahman 
of the Vedantins does nothing of the kind ; nor does the Ain Suph of the Chaldaean 
Kabalah. It is an eternal and periodical law which causes an active and creative 
force (the Logos) to emanate from the ever-concealed and incomprehensible one prin- 
ciple at the beginning of every Mahamanvantara, or new cycle of life. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 57 

and within which all shall be absorbed at the end of the 
great cycle of Being. 

Inq. — TTiis is the old, old claim of pantheism. If you are 
pantheists, you can?iot be deists; a7id if you are not deists, then 
you have to answer to the name of atheists, 

Theo. — Not necessarily so. The term '' pantheism " is, 
again, one of the many abused terms whose real and primi- 
tive meaning has been distorted by blind prejudice and a 
one-sidedness of view. If you accept the Christian ety- 
mology of this compound word, and form it oi pan (tckv), 
*' all," and theos (Osoc;), " god," and then imagine and teach 
that this means that every stone and every tree in Nature is 
a God or the One God, then, of course, you will be right, 
and make of pantheists fetish-worshipers, in addition to 
their legitimate name. But you will hardly be as success- 
ful if you etymologize the word ^'pantheism " esoterically, 
and as we do. 

Inq. — What is, then, your definition of it ? 

Theo. — Let me ask you a question in my turn. What 
do you understand by Pan, or Nature ? 

Inq. — Nature is, I suppose, the sum total of things existing 
around us ; the aggregate of causes and effects in the world of 
7natter, the creation or universe, 

Theo. — Hence the personified sum and order of known 
causes and effects ; the total of all finite agencies and forces, 
as utterly disconnected from an intelligent Creator or Cre- 
ators, and perhaps " conceived of as a single and separate 
force " — as in your cyclopedias ? 

Inq. — Yes, I believe so. 

Theo. — Well, we neither take into consideration this 
objective and material nature, which we call an evanescent 
illusion, nor do we mean by Pan, Nature, in the sense of its 



58 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

accepted derivation from the Latin natura^ "becoming," 
from nasci, ''to be born." When we speak of the Deity 
and make it identical — hence coeval — with Nature, the 
eternal and uncreate Nature is meant, and not your aggre- 
gate of flitting shadows and finite unrealities. We leave it 
to the hymn-makers to call the visible sky or heaven God's 
throne, and our earth of mud his footstool. Our Deity is 
neither in a paradise nor in a particular tree, building, or 
mountain ; it is everywhere, in every atom of the visible as 
of the invisible cosmos ; in, over, and around every invis- 
ible atom and divisible molecule ; for IT is the mysterious 
power of evolution and involution, the omnipresent, omnip- 
otent, and even omniscient creative potentiality. 

Inq. — Stop I Omniscience is the prerogative of something 
that thi7tks^ and you deny to your Absoluteness the power of 
thought. 

Theo. — We deny it to the Absolute, since thought is 
something limited and conditioned. But you evidently for- 
get that in philosophy absolute unconsciousness is also abso- 
lute consciousness, as otherwise it would not be absolute. 

Inq. — Then your Absolute thinks ? 

Theo. — No, IT does not — for the simple reason that it 
is Absolute Thought itself. Nor does it exist, for the same 
reason, as it is absolute existence, and "Be-ness," not a 
Being. Read the superb Kabalistic poem by Solomon ben- 
Yehudah Ibn Gebirol, in the Kether Malchuth, and you 
will understand : 

Thou art one, the root of all numbers, but not as an element of 
numeration ; for unity admits not of multiplication, change, or form. 
Thou art one, and in the secret of Thy unity the wisest of men are 
lost, because they know it not. Thou art one, and Thy unity is never 
diminished, never extended, and cannot be changed. Thou art one, 
and no thought of mine can fix for Thee a limit, or define Thee. 
Thou ART, but not as one existent, for the understanding and vision 



THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY, 59 

of mortals cannot attain to Thy existence, nor determine for Thee the 
where, the how, and the why. 

In short, our Deity is the eternal, incessantly evolving, 
not creating, builder of the universe ; that universe itself 
unfolding out of its own essence, not being made. It is a 
sphere, without circumference, in its symbolism, which has 
but one ever-acting attribute embracing all other existing 
or thinkable attributes — Itself. It is the one law, giving the 
impulse to manifested, eternal, and immutable laws, within 
that never-manifesting, because absolute. Law which in its 
manifesting periods is The Ever-Becoming. 

Inq. — 1 07ice heard one of your members remark that Uni- 
versal Deity ^ being everywhere ^ was in vessels of dishonor^ as 
in those of honor ^ and therefore was present in every atom of 
my cigar-ash I Is this not ra?ik blasphemy ? 

Theo. — I do not think so, as simple logic can hardly be 
regarded as blasphemy. Were we to exclude the Omni- 
present Principle from one single mathematical point of the 
universe, or from a particle of matter occupying any con- 
ceivable space, could we still regard it as infinite ? 

u 

IS IT NECESSARY TO PRAY? 

Inq. — Do you believe in prayer^ and do you ever pray ? 

Theo. — We do not. We act instead of talk. 

Inq. — You do not offer prayers even to the Absolute Prin- 
ciple ? 

Theo. — Why should we ? Being well-occupied people, 
we can hardly afford to lose time in addressing verbal 
prayers to a pure abstraction. The Unknowable is capable 
of relations only in its parts one to another, but is non-exis- 
tent as regards any finite relations. The visible universe 



60 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

depends for its existence and phenomena on its mutually 
acting forms and their laws, not on prayer or prayers. 

Inq. — Do you not believe at all in the efficacy of prayer ? 

Theo. — Not in prayer taught in so many words and 
repeated externally, if by prayer you mean the outward 
petition to an unknown God as the addressee, which was 
inaugurated by the Jews and popularized by the Pharisees. 

Inq. — Is there a7iy other kind of prayer ? 

Theo. — Most decidedly ; we call it willprayer, and it is 
rather an internal command than a petition. 

Inq. — To whom, then, do you pray when you- do so? 

Theo. — To ''our Father in heaven" — in its esoteric 
meaning. 

Inq. — Is that different from the one given to it in theology ? 

Theo. — Entirely so. An Occultist or a Theosophist ad- 
dresses his prayer to his '' Father " which is in secret (read, 
and try to understand, Matthew vi. 6), not to an extracos- 
mic and therefore finite God ; and that ''Father" is in man 
himself. 

Inq. — The?t you make of man a God? 

Theo. — Please say " God " and not " a God." In our 
sense, the inner man is the only God of whom we can have 
cognizance. And how can this be otherwise ? Grant us 
our postulate that God is a universally diffused, infinite prin- 
ciple, and how can man alone escape from being soaked 
through by and in the Deity ? We call our " Father in 
heaven " that deific essence of which we are cognizant 
within us, in our heart and spiritual consciousness, and 
which has nothing to do with the anthropomorphic concep- 
tion we may form of it in our physical brain or its fancy : 
" Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 61 

the Spirit of [the absolute] God dwelleth in you ? " * Yet 
let no man anthropomorphize that essence in us. Let no 
Theosophist, if he would hold to divine, not human truth, 
say that this '' God in secret " listens to, or is distinct from, 
either finite man or the infinite essence; for all are one. 
Nor, as just remarked, that a prayer is a petition. It is a 
mystery, rather ; an occult process by which finite and con- 
ditioned thoughts and desires, unable to be assimilated by 
the absolute Spirit which is unconditioned, are translated 
into spiritual wills and the will ; such process being called 
"spiritual transmutation." The intensity of our ardent 
aspirations changes prayer into the '* philosopher's stone," 
or that which transmutes lead into pure gold. The only 
homogeneous essence, our " will-prayer," becomes the ac- 
tive or creative force, producing effects according to our 
desire. 

Inq. — Do you mean to say that prayer is an occult process 
bringing about physical results ? 

Theo. — I do. Will-power becomes a living power. But 
woe unto those Occultists and Theosophists who, instead 
of crushing out the desires of the lower personal ego or 
physical man, and saying — addressing their Higher Spirit- 
ual Ego, immersed in Atma-Buddhic light — " Thy will be 
done, not mine," send up waves of will-power for selfish or 
unholy purposes ! For this is black magic, abomination. 



* One often finds in Theosophical writings conflicting statements about the Christos 
principle in man. Some call it the sixth principle (Buddhi), others the seventh 
(Atman). If Christian Theosophists wish to make use of such expressions, let them 
be made philosophically correct by following the analogy of the old Wisdom-Religion 
symbols. We say that Christos is not only one of the three higher principles, but all 
the three regarded as a Trinity. This Trinity represents the Holy Ghost, the Father, 
and the Son, as it answers to abstract spirit, differentiated spirit, and embodied spirit. 
Krishna and Christ are philosophically the same principle under its triple aspect of 
manifestation. In the Bhagavad-Gitd we find Krishna calling himself indifferently 
Atman, the Abstract Spirit, Kshetrajna, the Higher or reincarnating Ego, and the 
Universal SELF*--all names which, when transferred from the universe to man, an- 
swer to Atma, Buddhi, and Manas. The A nugitd is full of the same doctrine. 



62 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

and spiritual sorcery. Unfortunately, all this is the favorite 
occupation of our Christian statesmen and generals, espe- 
cially when the latter are sending two armies to murder 
each other. Both before action indulge in a bit of such 
sorcery, when severally offering prayers to the same God of 
hosts, each entreating his help to cut his enemies' throats. 

Inq. — David prayed to the Lord of hosts to help hhn smite 
the Fhilisti?ies and slay the Syriaiis and the Moabites^ and 
*' the Lord preserved David whithersoever he we7it,^^ Ln that 
we only follow what we find in the Bible. 

Theo. — Of course you do. But since you delight in 
calling yourselves Christians, not Israelites or Jews, as far as 
we know, why do you not rather follow that which Christ 
says ? And he distinctly commands you not to follow 
" them of old times," or the Mosaic law, but bids you do 
as he tells you, and warns those who would take the sword 
that they too will perish by the sword. Christ has given 
you one prayer, of which you have made a lip-prayer and a 
boast, and which none but the true Occultist understands. 
In it you say, in your dead-sense meaning, " Forgive us our 
debts, as we forgive our debtors " — which you never do. 
Again, he told you to love your enemies and do good to 
them that hate you. It is surely not the '' meek prophet 
of Nazareth " who taught you to pray to your *' Father " 
to slay and give you victory over your enemies ! This is 
why we reject what you call *' prayers." 

Inq. — But how do you explain the universal fact that all 
nations and peoples have prayed to and worshiped a God or 
Gods ? Sojne have adored and propitiated devils and harm- 
ful spirits^ but this only proves the universality of the belief in 
the efficacy of prayer. 

Theo. — It is explained by the fact that prayer has sev- 
eral other meanings besides that given to it by the Chris- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 63 

tians. It means not only a pleading or petition, but in 
days of old meant far more an invocation and incantation. 
The mantra^ or the rhythmically chanted prayer of the 
Hindus, has precisely such a meaning, for the Brahmans 
hold themselves higher than the common Devas or '* Gods.'* 
A prayer may be an appeal or an incantation for maledic- 
tion and a curse — as in the case of two armies praying sim- 
ultaneously for mutual destruction — as much as for bless- 
ing. And as the great majority of people are intensely 
selfish, and pray only for themselves, asking to be given 
their '' daily bread " instead of working for it, and begging 
God not to lead them '' into temptation," but to deliver them 
(the memorialists only) from evil, the result is that prayer, 
as now understood, is doubly pernicious : {a) it kills in man 
self-reliance ; (h) it develops in him a still more ferocious 
selfishness and egotism than he is already endowed with 
by nature. I repeat that we believe in '' communion " and 
simultaneous action in unison with our '' Father in secret " ; 
and, in rare moments of ecstatic bliss, in the mingling of 
our higher soul with the universal essence, attracted as it 
is toward its origin and center — a state called during life 
Samadhi, and after death Nirvana. We refuse to pray 
to created finite beings — i.e., gods, saints, angels, etc. — 
because we regard it as idolatry; we cannot pray to the 
Absolute for reasons explained before ; therefore we try to 
replace fruitless and useless prayer by meritorious and good- 
producing actions. 

Inq. — Christians would call this pride and blasphemy. 
Are they wrong? 

Theo. — Entirely so. It is they, on the contrary, who 
show Satanic pride in their belief that the Absolute or the 
Infinite — even if there were such a thing as the possibility 
of any relation between the unconditioned and the condi- 
tioned — will stoop to listen to every foolish or egotistical 



64 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

prayer. And it is they, again, who virtually blaspheme in 
teaching that an Omniscient and Omnipotent God needs 
uttered prayers to know what he has to do ! This, under- 
stood esoterically, is corroborated by both Buddha and 
Jesus. The one says: ''Seek naught from the helpless 
Gods — pray not ! but rather act ; for darkness will not 
brighten. Ask naught from silence, for it can neither 
speak nor hear.'' And the other — ^Jesus — recommends: 
" Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name [that of Christos], 
that will I do." Of course this quotation, if taken in its 
literal sense, goes against our argument. But if we accept 
it esoterically, with the full knowledge of the meaning of 
the term Christos — which to us represents Atma-Buddhi- 
Manas, the Self — it comes to this : the only God we must 
recognize and pray to, or rather act in unison with, is that 
Spirit of God of which our body is the temple, and in which 
it dwelleth. 

PRAYER KILLS SELF-RELIANCE. 

Inq. — But did not Christ himself pray and recommend 
prayer ? 

Theo. — It is so recorded; but those prayers are pre- 
cisely of that kind of communion just mentioned with one's 
'' Father in secret." Otherwise, and if we identify Jesus 
with the Universal Deity, there would be something too 
absurdly illogical in the inevitable conclusion that he, the 
" very God himself," prayed to himself, and separated the 
will of that God from his own ! 

Inq. — One argument more ; an argument^ moreover^ much 
used by some Christians, They say, " I feel that I am not 
able to co7iquer my passions and weaknesses in my own strength. 
But when I pray to Jesus Christ I feel that he gives me strength^ 
and that in his power I am able to conquer. ^^ 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 65 

Theo. — No wonder. If '' Christ Jesus " is God, and 
one independent and separate from him who prays, of 
course everything is, and must be, possible to ^'Almighty 
God." But, then, where is the merit, or justice either, of 
such a conquest ? Why should the pseudo-conqueror be 
rewarded for something done which has cost him only 
prayers ? Would you, even a simple mortal man, pay 
your laborer a full day's wage if you did most of his work 
for him, he sitting under an apple-tree and praying to you 
to do so all the while ? This idea of passing one's whole 
life in moral idleness, and having one's hardest work and 
duty done by another — whether God or man — is most re- 
volting to us, as it is most degrading to human dignity. 

Inq. — Perhaps so; yet it is the idea of trusting in a personal 
Saviour to help and strengthen in the battle of life which is the 
fundamental idea of fnodern Christianity. And there is no 
doubt that, subjectively, such belief is efficacious ; that is, that 
those who believe do feel themselves helped and strengthened. 

Theo. — Nor is there any more doubt that some patients 
of " Christian " and " Mental Scientists " — the great '' De- 
niers " * — are also sometimes cured ; nor that hypnotism 
and suggestion, psychology and even mediumship, will 
produce such results as often, if not oftener. You take 
into consideration, and string on the thread of your argu- 
ment, successes alone. And how about ten times the num- 
ber of failures ? Surely you will not presume to say that 
failure is unknown, even with a sufficiency of blind faith, 
among fanatical Christians ? 

Inq. — But how can you explain those cases which are fol- 
lowed by full success ? Where does a Theosophist look for 
power to subdue his passions and selfishness ? 

* A new sect of healers, who, by disavowing the existence of anything but spirit, 
which can neither suffer nor be ill, claim to cure all and every disease, provided the 
patient has faith that what he denies can have no existence. A new form of self- 
hypnotism. 



66 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Theo. — To his Higher Self, the divine spirit or the God 
in him, and to his Karma. How long shall we have to 
repeat over and over again that the tree is known by its 
fruit, the nature of the cause by its effects ? You speak of 
subduing passions and becoming good through and with the 
help of God or Christ. We ask, where do you find more 
virtuous, guiltless people, abstaining from sin and crime — 
in Christendom or Buddhism ; in Christian countries or in 
heathen lands ? Statistics are there to give the answer 
and corroborate our claims. According to the last census 
in Ceylon and India, in the comparative table of crimes 
committed by Christians, Mussulmans, Hindus, Eurasians, 
Buddhists, etc., in two milHons of population taken at ran- 
dom from each, and covering the misdemeanors of several 
years, the proportion of crimes committed by the Christian 
stands at about fifteen to four committed by the Buddhist 
population.* No Orientalist, no historian of any note, or 
traveler in Buddhist lands, from Bishop Bigandet and Abbe 
Hue to Sir William Hunter and every fair-minded official, 
will fail to give the palm of virtue to Buddhists before 
Christians. Yet the former — not the true Buddhist Siamese 
sect, at all events — do not believe in either God or a future 
reward outside of this earth. They do not pray — neither 
priests nor laymen. '' Pray ! " they would exclaim in won- 
der ; '' to whom, or to what ? " 

Inq. — Then they are truly atheists, 

Theo. — Most undeniably ; but they are also the most 
virtue-loving and virtue-keeping men in the whole world. 
Buddhism says : Respect the religions of other men and re- 
main true to your own ; but church Christianity, denounc- 
ing all the gods of other nations as devils, would doom 
every non-Christian to eternal perdition. 

Inq. — Does not the Buddhist priesthood do the same? 

* See Z«<:j/^r for April, 1888, p. 147, art. "Christian Lectures on Buddhism." 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 67 

Theo. — Never. They hold too much to the wise precept 
found in the Dhani7napada to do so, for they know that : 

If any man, whether he be learned or not, consider himself so great 
as to despise other men, he is like a blind man holding a candle — blind 
himself, he illumines others. 



ON THE SOURCE OF THE HUMAN SOUL, 

Inq. — Hoiv^ then, do you account for man being endowed 
with a spirit and soul ? Whence these ? 

Theo. — From the Universal Soul; certainly not be- 
stowed by a Personal God. Whence the moist element 
in the jellyfish ? From the ocean which surroimds it, in 
which it lives and breathes and has its being, and whither 
it returns when dissolved. 

Inq. — So you reject the teaching that soul is given, or 
breathed into man, by God? 

Theo. — We are obhged to. The *' soul " spoken of in 
Genesis (ii. 7) is, as therein stated, the '"living soul" or 
nephesh, the vital, animal soul with which God — we say 
Nature and inmiutable Law — endows man like every ani- 
mal. It is not at all the thinking soul or mind; least of 
all is it the immortal spirit. 

Inq. — Well, let us put it otherwise : is it God who endows 
w£in with a human rational soul and immortal spirit ? 

Theo. — Again, in the way you put the question, we 
must object to it. Since we believe in no Personal God, 
how can we believe that he endows man with anything ? 
But granting, for the sake of argument, a God who takes 
upon himself the risk of creating a new soul for every new- 
born babe, all that can be said is that such a God can 
hardly be regarded as himself endowed with any wisdom 
or prevision. Certain other difficulties, and the impossibil- 



6S THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ity of reconciling this with the claims made for the mercy, 
justice, equity, and omniscience of that God, are so many 
deadly reefs on which this theological dogma is daily and 
hoiurly broken. 

Inq. — What do you mean ? What difficulties ? 

Theo. — I am thinking of an unanswerable argument 
offered once in my presence by a Cingalese Buddhist 
priest, a famous preacher, to a Christian missionary — one 
in no way ignorant or unprepared for the public discussion 
during which it was advanced. It was near Colombo, and 
the missionary had challenged the priest Megittawatti to 
give his reasons why the Christian God should not be ac- 
cepted by the ''heathen." Well, the missionary came out 
of that memorable discussion second-best, as usual. 

Inq. — / should be glad to learfi in what way. 

Theo. — Simply this: the Buddhist priest premised by 
asking \h.^ padre whether his God had given commandments 
to Moses for men only to keep, but to be broken by God 
himself. The missionary denied the supposition indig- 
nantly. ''Well," said his opponent, "you tell us that God 
makes no exceptions to this rule, and that no soul can be 
born without his will. Now God forbids adultery, among 
other things, and yet you say in the same breath that it is 
he who creates every babe born, and he who endows it 
with a soul. Are we then to understand that the millions 
of children born in crime and adultery are your God's 
work ? that your God forbids and punishes the breaking 
of his laws, and that, nevertheless, he creates daily and 
hourly souls for just such children ? According to the 
simplest logic, your God is an accomplice in the crime; 
since, but for his help and interference, no such children of 
lust could be born. Where is the justice of punishing not 
only the guilty parents, but even the innocent babe, for 



THE KEY TO THEOSOFHY. 69 

that which is done by that very God, whom yet you exon- 
erate from any guilt himself ? " The missionary looked at 
his watch and suddenly found it was getting too late for 
further discussion. 

Inq. — You forget that all such inexplicable cases are mys- 
teries^ and that we are forbidden by our religion to pry into 
the mysteries of God, 

Theo. — No, we do not forget, but simply reject such 
impossibilities. Nor do we want you to believe as we do. 
We only answer the questions you ask. We have, how- 
ever, another name for your '' mysteries." 



THE BUDDHIST TEACHINGS ON THE ABOVE. 

Inq. — What does Buddhism teach with regard to the soul? 

Theo. — It depends whether you mean exoteric, popular 
Buddhism, or its esoteric teachings. The former explains 
itself in the Buddhist Catechism in this wise : 

** Soul " it considers a word used by the ignorant to express a false 
idea. If everything is subject to change, then man is included, and every 
material part of him must change. That which is subject to change 
is not permanent ; so there can be no immortal survival of a changeful 
thing. 

This seems plain and definite. But when we come to 
the question that the new personality in each succeeding 
rebirth is the aggregate of skandhas^ or the attributes of 
the old personality, and ask whether this new aggregation 
of skandhas is a new being likewise, in which nothing has 
remained of the last, we read that : 

In one sense it is a new being, in another it is not. During this 
life the skandhas are continually changing; and while the man A B 
of forty is identical, as regards personality, with the youth A B of 
eighteen, yet by the continual waste and reparation of his body, and 
change of mind and character, he is a different being. Nevertheless 



70 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

the man in his old age justly reaps the reward or suffering consequent 
upon his thoughts and actions at every previous stage of his life. So 
the new being of a rebirth, being the same individuality as before [but 
not the same personality], with but a changed form, or new aggrega- 
tion of sJzandhas, justly reaps the consequences of his actions and 
thoughts in the previous existence. 

This is abstruse metaphysics, and plainly does not ex- 
press disbelief in soul by any means. 

Inq. — Is fiot something like this spoken of in esoteric 
Budhism ? 

Theo. — It is ; for this teaching belongs both to esoteric 
Budhism, or Secret Wisdom, and to exoteric Buddhism, or 
the religious philosophy of Gautama Buddha. 

Inq. — But we are distinctly told that most of the Buddhists 
do not believe in the soul's immortality, 

Theo. — Nor do we, if you mean by soul the personal 
Ego, or life-soul — nephesh. But every learned Buddhist 
believes in the individual or divine Ego. Those v^ho do 
not, err in their judgment; they are as mistaken on this 
point as those Christians who mistake the theological inter- 
polations of the later editors of the Gospels about damna- 
tion and hell-fire for verbatim utterances of Jesus. Neither 
Buddha nor Christ ever wrote anything themselves, but 
both spoke in allegories and used *'dark sayings," as all 
true Initiates did, and will do for a long time yet to come. 
Both Scriptures treat of all such metaphysical questions 
very cautiously, and both Buddhist and Christian records 
sin by that excess of exotericism, the dead-letter meaning 
far overshooting the mark in both cases. 

Inq. — Do you mean to suggest that neither the teachings of 
Buddha nor those of Christ have been heretofore rightly un- 
derstood ? 

Theo. — What I mean is just as you say. Both gospels 
' — the Buddhist and the Christian — were preached with the 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 71 

same object in view. Both reformers were ardent philan- 
thropists and practical altruists, preaching most unmistak- 
ably sociaHsm of the noblest and highest type, self-sacrifice 
to the bitter end. '' Let the sins of the whole world fall 
upon me, that I may reheve man's misery and suffering ! " 
cries Buddha. *' I would not let one cry whom I could 
save ! " exclaims the prince-beggar, clad in the refuse rags 
of the burial-grounds. " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy-laden, and I wall give you rest," is the ap- 
peal to the poor and the disinherited made by the '^ Man 
of Sorrows," who had not where to lay his head. The 
teachings of both are boundless love for humanity, charity, 
forgiveness of injury, forgetfulness of self, and pity for the 
deluded masses ; both show the same contempt for riches, 
and make no difference between meiun and tuuin. Their 
desire was, without revealing to all the sacred mysteries of 
initiation, to give the ignorant and the misled, whose bur- 
den in life was too heavy for them, hope enough and an 
inkling into the truth suflScient to support them in their 
heaviest hours. But the object of both reformers was 
frustrated, owing to excess of zeal of their later followers. 
The words of the Masters having been misunderstood and 
misinterpreted, behold the consequences ! 

Inq. — But surely Buddha must have repudiated the souVs 
imfnortality if all the Orie7italists and his oum priests say 
so? 

Theo. — The Arhats began by following the policy of 
their Master, and the majority of the priests who followed 
them were not initiated, just as in Christianity; and so, 
little by Httle, the great esoteric truths became almost lost. 
A proof in point is that, out of the two existing sects in 
Ceylon, the Siamese beHeves death to be the absolute anni- 
hilation of individuality and personality, and the other ex- 
plains Nirvana as we Theosophists do. 



72 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Inq. — But why, in that case, do Buddhism and Christianity 
represent the two opposite poles of such belief ? 

Theo. — Because the conditions under which they were 
preached were not the same. In India the Brahmans, 
jealous of their superior knowledge, and excluding from it 
every caste save their own, had driven millions of men 
into idolatry and almost fetishism. Buddha had to give 
the death-blow to an exuberance of unhealthy fancy and 
fanatical superstition resulting from ignorance, such as has 
rarely been known before or after. Better a philosophical 
atheism than such ignorant worship for those 

Who cry upon their gods and are not heard 
Or are not heeded, 

and who live and die in mental despair. He had to arrest 
first of all this muddy torrent of superstition ; to uproot 
errors before he gave out the truth. And as he could not 
give out all, for the same good reason as Jesus — who re- 
minds his disciples that the mysteries of heaven are not for 
the unintelligent masses, but for the elect alone, and there- 
fore he spoke to the people in parables (Matt. xiii. lo, ii) 
— so his caution led Buddha to conceal too much. He 
even refused to say to the monk Vacchagotta whether 
there was or was not an Ego in man. When pressed to 
answer, ^^ the exalted one maintained silence." 

Buddha gives his initiated disciple Ananda, who inquires 
for the reason of this silence, a plain and unequivocal 
answer in the dialogue translated by Oldenburg from the 
Samyuttaka Nikaya : 

If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk Vacchagotta asked me, 
*' Is there the Ego? " had answered, "' The Ego is," then that, Ananda, 
would have confirmed the doctrine of the Samanas and Brahmanas, 
who believed in permanence. If I, Ananda, when the wandering monk 
Vacchagotta asked me, ^' Is there not the Ego? " had answered, *' The 
Ego is not," then that, Ananda, would have confirmed the doctrine of 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 73 

those who believed in annihilation. If I, Ananda, when the wander- 
ing monk Vacchagotta asked me, *' Is there the Ego? " had answered, 
'' The Ego is," would that have served my end, Ananda, by producing 
in him the knowledge, all existences {dhammd) are non-ego? But if I, 
Ananda, had answered,'** The Ego is not," then that, Ananda, would 
only have caused the wandering monk Vacchagotta to be thrown from 
one bewilderment to another : ** My Ego, did it not exist before? But 
now it exists no longer!" 

This shows better than anything that Gautama Buddha 
withheld such difficult metaphysical doctrines from the 
masses in order not to perplex them more. What he 
meant was the difference between the personal temporary 
Ego and the Higher Self, which sheds its light on the im- 
perishable Ego, the spiritual '* I " of man. 

Inq. — This refers to Gatitama, but in what way does it 
touch the Gospels ? 

Theo. — Read history and think over it. At the time the 
events narrated in the Gospels are alleged to have hap- 
pened there was a similar intellectual fermentation taking 
place in the whole civiHzed world, only with opposite re- 
sults in the East and the West. The old gods were dying 
out. While the civilized classes drifted, in the train of the 
unbelieving Sadducees, into materialistic negations and 
mere dead-letter Mosaic form in Palestine, and into moral 
dissolution in Rome, the lowest and poorest classes ran 
after sorcery and strange gods, or became hypocrites or 
worse. Once more the time for a spiritual reform had 
arrived. The cruel, anthropomorphic, and jealous God of 
the Jews, with his sanguinary laws of '' an eye for an eye, 
and a tooth for a tooth," of the shedding of blood and ani- 
mal sacrifice, had to be relegated to a secondary place and 
replaced by the merciful '' Father in secret." The latter 
had to be shown, not as an extracosmic God, but as a 
divine Saviour of the man of flesh, enshrined in his own 
heart and soul, in the poor as in the rich. No more here 



74 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

than in India could the secrets of initiation be divulged, 
lest by giving that which is holy to the dogs, and casting 
pearls before swine, both the revealer and the things re- 
vealed should be trodden underfoot. Thus the reticence 
of both Buddha and Jesus — whether the latter lived out the 
historic period allotted to him or not — led in the one case 
to the blank negations of Southern Buddhism, and in the 
other to the three clashing forms of the Christian church 
and the two hundred sects in Protestant England alone. 



VL 



THEOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS AS TO NATURE 
AND MAN. 



THE UNITY OF ALL IN ALL. 

Inq. — Having told me what God, the soul, and man are 
not, in your views, ca7i you ifiform me what they are, accord- 
ing to your teachings ? 

Theo. — In their origin and in eternity the three, hke the 
universe and all therein, are one with the absolute unity, the 
unknowable deific essence I spoke about some time back. 
We believe in no creation, but in the periodical and con- 
secutive appearances of the universe from the subjective 
on to the objective plane of being, at regular intervals of 
time, covering periods of immense duration. 

Inq. — Can you elaborate the subject? 

Theo, — Take as a first comparison, and a help toward a 
more correct conception, the solar year ; and as a second, 
the two halves of that year, producing each a day and a 
night of six months' duration at the north pole. Now 
imagine, if you can, instead of a solar year of 365 days, 
eternity. Let the sun represent the universe, and the polar 
days and nights of six months each days and nights lasting 
each 182 trillions and quadrillions of years, instead of 182 

75 



76 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

days each. As the sun rises every morning on our objec- 
tive horizon out of its (to us) subjective and antipodal 
space, so does the universe emerge periodically on the 
plane of objectivity, issuing from that of subjectivity — the 
antipodes of the former. This is the '* Cycle of Life." 
And as the sun disappears from our horizon, so does the 
universe disappear at regular periods, when the "Uni- 
versal Night " sets in. The Hindus call such alternations 
the " Days and Nights of Brahma," or the times of man- 
vantara and J>ra /ay a (dissolution). The Westerns may call 
them Universal Days and Nights if they prefer. During 
the latter (the Nights) All is in All ; every atom is resolved 
into one homogeneity. 



EVOLUTION AND ILLUSION, 

Inq. — But who is it that each time creates the universe ? 

Theo. — No one creates it. Science would call the pro- 
cess evolution ; the pre-Christian philosophers and the Ori- 
entalists called it emanation ; we Occultists and Theosophists 
see in it the only universal and eternal Reality casting a 
periodical reflection of Itself on the infinite spatial depths. 
This reflection, which you regard as the objective material 
universe, we consider as a temporary " illusion " and noth- 
ing else. That alone which is eternal is real. 

Inq. — At that rate^ you and I are also " illusions.^^ 

Theo. — As flitting personalities — to-day one person, to- 
morrow another — we are. Would you call the sudden 
flashes of the aurora borealis — the northern lights — a 
''reality," though it is as real as can be while you look at 
it ? Certainly not ; it is the cause that produces it, if per- 
manent and eternal, which is the only reality, while the 
effect is but a passing illusion. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 77 

Inq. — All this does not explain to me how this " illusio7i " 
called the universe originates ; how the conscious to be pro- 
ceeds to manifest itself from the unconsciousness that is. 

Theo. — It is ^' unconsciousness " only to our finite con- 
sciousness. Verily may we paraphrase St. John (i. 5), and 
say, ''And the [absolute] Kght [which is darkness to us] 
shineth in darkness [which is illusionary material light] ; and 
the darkness comprehended it not." This absolute hght is 
also absolute and immutable Law. Whether by radiation 
or emanation — we need not quarrel over terms — the uni- 
verse passes out of its homogeneous subjectivity on to the 
first plane of manifestation ; of which planes there are 
seven, we are taught. With each plane it becomes more 
dense and material until it reaches this our plane, on which 
the only world approximately known and understood in its 
physical composition by science is the planetary or solar 
system — one sui generis^ we are told. 

Inq. — What do you mean by sui generis ? 

Theo. — I mean that though the fundamental law and 
the universal working of laws of Nature are uniform, still 
our solar system — like every other such system in the mil- 
lions of others in cosmos, and even our earth — has its own 
program of manifestations, differing from the respective 
programs of all others. We speak of the inhabitants of 
other planets, and imagine that if they are men — i.e., think- 
ing entities — they must be as we are. The fancy of poets 
and painters and sculptors never fails to represent even 
the angels as a beautiful copy of man — plus wings. We 
say that all this is an error and. a delusion ; because, if on 
this little earth alone one finds such a diversity in its flora, 
fauna, and mankind — from the seaweed to the cedar of 
Lebanon, from the jellyfish to the elephant, from the Bush- 
man and negro to the Apollo Belvedere — alter the condi- 
tions, cosmic and planetary, and there must be as a result 



78 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

quite a different flora, fauna, and mankind. The same 
laws will fashion quite a different set of things and beings 
even on this our plane, including in it all our planets. 
How much more different, then, must be external Nature 
in other solar systems; and how foolish is it to judge of 
other stars and worlds and human beings by our own, as 
physical science does ! 

Inq. — But what are your data for this assertion ? 

Theo. — What science in general will never accept as 
proof — the cumulative testimony of an endless series of 
seers who have testified to this fact. Their spiritual visions 
— real explorations by and through psychic and spiritual 
senses untrammeled by blind flesh — have been systemati- 
cally checked and compared one with the other, and their 
nature sifted. All that was not corroborated by unanimous 
and collective experience was rejected, while that only' was 
recorded as established truth which, in various ages, under 
different climes, and throughout an untold series of inces- 
sant observations, was found to agree and receive constantly 
further corroboration. The methods used by our scholars 
and students of the psychospiritual sciences do not differ 
from those of students of the natural and physical sciences, 
as you may see. Only our fields of research are on two dif- 
ferent planes, and our instruments are made by no human 
hands ; for which reason, perchance, they are but the more 
reliable. The retorts, accumulators, and microscopes of 
the chemist and naturalist may get out of order ; the tele- 
scope and the astronomer^s horological instruments may 
get spoiled ; our recording instruments are beyond the in- 
fluence of weather or the elements. 

Inq. — And therefore you have implicit faith in them ? 

Theo. — Faith is a word not to be found in Theosophical 
dictionaries ; we say knowledge based on observation and 
experience. There is this difference, however : that while 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 79 

the observation and experience of physical science lead the 
scientists to about as many working hypotheses as there 
are minds to evolve them, our knowledge consents to add 
to its lore only those facts which have become undeniable 
and which are fully and absolutely demonstrated. We 
have no two beliefs or hypotheses on the same subject. 

Inq. — Is it on such data that you came to accept the strange 
theories we find in esoteric Budhism ? 

Theo. — Just so. These theories may be slightly incor- 
rect in their minor details, and even faulty in their exposi- 
tion by lay students ; they are facts in Nature, nevertheless, 
and come nearer the truth than any scientific hypothesis. 

ON THE SEPTENARY CONSTITUTION OF OUR 
PLANET, 

Inq. — I understand that you describe our earth as forming 
part of a chain of earths ? 

Theo. — We do. But the other six *' earths " or globes 
are not on the same plane of objectivity as our earth is; 
therefore we cannot see them. 

Inq. — Is that on account of the great distance ? 

Theo. — Not at all ; for we see with our naked eye not 
only planets, but even stars at immeasurably greater dis- 
tances; but it is owing to these six globes being outside 
our physical means of perception or plane of being. It is 
not only that their material density, weight, and fabric are 
entirely different from those of our earth and the other 
known planets ; but they are (to us) in an entirely different 
layer of space, so to speak — a layer not to be perceived 
or felt by our physical senses. And when I say ''layer," 
please do not allow your fancy to suggest to you layers like 
strata or beds laid one over the other ; for this would only 
lead to another absurd misconception. What I mean by 
'* layer " is that plane of infinite space which by its nature 



80 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

cannot fall under our ordinary waking perceptions, whether 
mental or physical, but which exists in Nature outside of 
our normal mentality or consciousness, outside of our three- 
dimensional space, and outside of our division of time. 
Each of the seven fundamental planes or layers in space — 
of course as a whole, as the pure space of Locke's defini- 
tion, not as our finite space — has its own objectivity and 
subjectivity, its own space and time, its own consciousness 
and set of senses. But all this will be hardly comprehen- 
sible to one trained in the modern ways of thought. 

Inq. — What do you mean by a different set of senses ? Is 
there anything 07i our human ^' plane " that you could bring as 
an illustration of what you say ^ just to give a clearer idea of 
what you may mean by this variety of senses^ spaces^ and re- 
spective perceptions ? 

Theo. — None, except, perhaps, that which for science 
would be rather a handy peg on which to hang a counter- 
argument. We have a different set of senses in dream-life, 
have we not? We feel, talk, hear, see, taste, and function 
in general on a different plane, the change of state of our 
consciousness being evidenced by the fact that a series of 
acts and events embracing years, as we think, passes ideally 
through our mind in one instant. Well, that extreme rapid- 
ity of our mental operations in dreams, and the perfect 
naturalness, for the time being, of all the other functions, 
show us that we are on quite another plane. Our philos- 
ophy teaches us that as there are seven fundamental forces 
in Nature, and seven planes of being, so there are seven 
states of consciousness in which man can live, think, re- 
member, and have his being. To enumerate these here is 
impossible, and for this one has to turn to the study of 
Eastern metaphysics. But in these two states — the waking 
and the dreaming — every ordinary mortal, from a learned 
philosopher down to a poor untutored savage, has a good 
proof that such states differ. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 81 

Inq. — Yoli do not accept^ then, the well-know?t explanations 
of biology and physiology to account for the drearfi-state ? 

Theo. — We do not. We reject even the hypotheses of 
your psychologists, preferring the teachings of P^astern Wis- 
dom. BeHeving in seven planes of cosmic being and states 
of consciousness with regard to the universe or the macro- 
cosm, we stop at the fourth plane, finding it impossible to 
go with any degree of certainty beyond. But with respect 
to the microcosm, or man, we speculate freely on his seven 
states and principles. 

Inq. — How do you explain these? 

Theo. — We find, first of all, two distinct beings in man — 
the spiritual and the physical ; the man who thinks and the 
man who records as much of these thoughts as he is able 
to assimilate. Therefore we divide him into two distinct 
natures — the upper or the spiritual being, composed of three 
" principles " or aspects ; and the lower or the physical qua- 
ternary, composed of four — seven in all. 

THE SEPTENARY NATURE OF MAN 

Inq. — Is this the same as the divisioft we call spirit and 
soul, a?id the man of flesh ? 

Theo! — It is not. That is the old Platonic division. 
Plato was an Initiate, and therefore could not go into for- 
bidden details ; but he who is acquainted with the archaic 
doctrine finds the seven in Plato's various combinations of 
soul and spirit. He regarded man as constituted of two 
parts — one eternal, formed of the same essence as the Abso- 
luteness ; the other mortal and corruptible, deriving its con- 
stituent parts from the minor ''created" Gods. Man is 
composed, he shows, of (i) a mortal body; (2) an immor- 
tal principle; and (3) a "separate mortal kind of soul." 
It is that which we respectively call the physical man, the 
spiritual soul or spirit [nous), and the animal soul {psuche). 
This is the division adopted by Paul, another Initiate, who 



82 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 



maintains that there is a psychical body which is sown in 
the corruptible (astral or physical body), and a spiritual 
body that is raised in incorruptible substance. Even James 
(iii. 15) corroborates the same by saying that the ''wis- 
dom " (of our lower soul) descendeth not from above, but 
is terrestrial, ''psychical," "demoniacal" {vide Greek text), 
while the other is heavenly wisdom. Now, so plain is it 
that Plato and even Pythagoras, while speaking but of 
three " principles," give them seven separate functions in 
their various combinations, that if we contrast our teachings 
this will become quite plain. Let us take a cursory view 
of these seven aspects by drawing a table. 

THEOSOPHICAL DIVISION. 



> 


Sanskrit Terms. 


Exoteric Mean- 
ing. 


Explanatory. 


% 


(«) R6pa, or Sthula 
Shaiira. 


(«) Physical body. 


(«) Is the vehicle of all the other 

** principles" during life. 




{b) Prdna. 


{b) Life, or vital 
principle. 


{h) Necessary only to a, c, d, and 
the functions of the lower Manas, 
which embrace all those limited to 
Xh^ physical brain. 


\ 


(c) Linga Sharira. \ if) Astral body. 


{c) The double, the phantom body. 


I 
H 


{d) Kama Riipa. (^) The seat of ani- 
mal desires and 
passions. 


(d) This is the center of the animal 
man, where lies the line of demar- 
cation which separates the mortal 
man from the immortal entity. 


H 

to 


{e) Manas — a dual 
principle in its 
functions. 


{e) Mind, intelli- 
gence ; the higher 
human mind, 
whose light, or ra- 
diation, links the 
Monad, for the 
lifetime, to the 
mortal man. 


(^) The future state and the karmic 
destiny of man depend on whether 
Manas gravitates more downward 
to Kama Rupa, the seat of the ani- 
mal passions, or upward to Bud- 
dhi, the spiritual Ego. In the lat- 
ter case, the higher consciousness 
of the individual spiritual aspira- 
tions of mind (-Vlanas), assimilat- 
ing Buddhi, is absorbed by it and 
forms the Ego, which goes into 
devachanic bliss.* 




CO Buddhi. 


(/) The spiritual 
soul. 


(/) The vehicle of pure universal 

spirit. 


X 

H 


(^) Atmd. 


{g) Spirit. 


(^) One with the Absolute, as its 
radiation. 



* In Mr. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism, d, e, and /"are respectively called the ani- 
mal, the human, and the spiritual souls, which answers as well. Though the princi- 
ples in Esoteric Buddhism are numbered, this is, strictly speaking, useless. The dual 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 83 

Now what does Plato teach ? He speaks of the interior 
man as constituted of two parts — one immutable and always 
the same, formed of the same substance as Deity, and the 
other mortal and corruptible. These two parts are found 
in the upper triad and the lower quaternary of our table. 
He explains that when the soul [psuche) '^ allies herself to 
the nous (divine spirit or substance *), she does everything 
aright and felicitously '* ; but the case is otherwise when she 
attaches herself to anoia (folly, or the irrational animal 
soul). Here, then, we have Manas, or the soul in general, 
in its two aspects : when attaching itself to anoia (our Kama 
Rupa, or the "animal soul " in Esoteric Buddhism) it runs 
toward entire annihilation, as far as the personal Ego is 
concerned ; when allying itself to the nous (Atma-Buddhi) 
it merges into the immortal, imperishable Ego, and then 
its spiritual consciousness of the personal Ego that was be- 
comes immortal. 

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SOUL AND SPIRIT. 

Inq. — Do you really teach ^ as you are accused of doing by 
some Spiritualists and Frefich Spiritists^ the annihilation of 
every personality ? 

Theo. — We do not. Our opponents have started the 
nonsensical charge because this question of duality — the 
i7tdividuality of the divine Ego and the persoJiality of the 

Monad alone (Atma-Buddhi) is susceptible of being thought of as the two highest 
numbers (the 6th and 7th). As to all others, since that "principle" only which is 
predominant in man has to be considered as the first and foremost, no numeration is 
possible as a general rule. In some men it is the higher intelligence (Manas, or the 
5th) which dominates the rest ; in others it is the animal soul (Kama Rupa) that reigns 
supreme, exhibiting the most bestial instincts, etc. 

* Paul calls Plato's nous "spirit"; but as this spirit is "substance," then, of 
course, Buddhi and not Atma is meant, as the latter cannot philosophically be called 
" substance " under any circumstance. We include Atma among the human " prin- 
ciples " in order not to create additional confusion. In reality it is no human princi- 
ple, but the Universal Absolute Principle of which Buddhi, the soul-spirit, is the car- 



84 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

human animal — involves that of the possibility of the real 
immortal Ego appearing in seance-rooms as a ''material- 
ized spirit," which we deny, as already explained. 

Inq. — You have just spoken of psuche running toward its 
entire annihilation if it attaches itself to anoia. What did 
Plato ^ and what do yoti, mean by this ? 

Theo. — The entire annihilation of the personal con- 
sciousness, as an exceptional and rare case, I think. The 
general and almost invariable rule is the merging of the 
personal into the individual or immortal consciousness of 
the Ego — a transformation or a divine transfiguration — 
and the entire annihilation only of the lower quaternary. 
Would you expect the man of flesh (or the temporary per- 
sonality), his shadow (the astral), his animal instincts, and 
even physical life, to survive with the spiritual Ego and 
become sempiternal ? Naturally all this ceases to exist, 
either at or soon after corporeal death. It becomes in 
time entirely disintegrated and disappears from view, being 
annihilated as a whole. 

Inq. — Then you also reject resurrection in the flesh? 

Theo. — Most decidedly we do. Why should we, who 
believe in the archaic Esoteric Philosophy of the ancients, 
accept the unphilosophical speculations of the later Chris- 
tian theology, borrowed from the Egyptian and Greek exo- 
teric systems of the Gnostics ? 

Inq. — The Egyptians revered nature-spirits^ and deified 
even onions ; your Hindus are idolaters to this day ; the Zoro- 
astrians worshiped^ and do still worships the sun; and the 
best Greek philosophers were either dreamers or materialists — 
witness Plato and Democritus. How can you compare I 

Theo. — It may be so in your modern theological and 
even scientific catechisms ; it is not so for unbiased minds. 
The Egyptians revered the ''One-Only-One" as Nout; and 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 85 

it is from this word that Anaxagoras got his denomination 
nous^ or, as he calls it, vo5(; aDTo%paTT|<;, '' the mind or spirit 
self-potent;" ap/Y] tyj^ y.ivY]a£u>(;, ''the leading motor" ox pri- 
mum mobile of all. With him the nous was God, and the logos 
was man, his emanation. The nous is the spirit (whether 
in cosmos or in man), and the logos ^ whether universe or 
astral body, the emanation of the former, the physical 
body being merely the animal. Our external powers per- 
ceive phenomena; our nous alone is able to recognize their 
nou7nena. It is the logos alone, or the noumenofi^ that sur- 
vives, because it is immortal in its very nature and essence ; 
and the logos in man is the eternal Ego, that which rein- 
carnates and lasts forever. But how can the evanescent 
or external shadow, the temporary clothing of that divine 
emanation which returns to the source whence it proceeded, 
be that which is ''raised in incorruptibility"? 

Inq. — Still you ca7i hardly escape the charge of having in- 
vented a new division of man'^s spiritual and psychic constitu- 
ents; for no philosopher speaks ofthe7n, though you believe that 
Plato does. 

Theo. — And I support the belief. Not only Plato, but 
also Pythagoras followed the same division.* He de- 
scribed the soul as a self-moving unit [monas) composed of 
three elements — the notis (spirit), t]\Q phren (mind), and the 
thumos (life, breath, or the nephesh of the Kabalists), which 
three correspond to our Atma-Buddhi (higher spirit-soul), to 
Manas (the Ego), and to Kama Rupa in conjunction with 
the lower reflection of Manas. That which the ancient 



* "Plato and Pythagoras," says Plutarch, " distribute the soul into two parts, the 
rational [noetic] and irrational soul [agnoza] ; that that part of the soul of man which 
is rational is eternal— for though it be not God, yet it is the product of an eternal Deity — 
but that part of the soul which is divested of reason [the agnoza^ dies." The modem 
term agnostic comes from a-gnosticos, a word cognate with agnoza. We wonder why 
Mr. Huxley, the author of the word, should have connected his great intellect with 
"the soul . . . divested of reason," which dies? Is it the exaggerated humility of the 
modem materialist? 



86 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Greek philosophers termed soul, in general, we call spirit, 
or spiritual soul — Buddhi, as the vehicle of Atma ; the To 
Agathon, or Plato's Supreme Deity. The fact that Py- 
thagoras and others state that phreii and ihuinos are shared 
by us with the brutes proves that in this case the lower 
manasic reflection (instinct) and Kama Rupa (animal liv- 
ing passions) are meant. And as Socrates and Plato ac- 
cepted the clue and followed it, if to these five — namely, 
To Agatho7i (Deity or Kxxvi.2^^ psuche (soul in its collective 
sense), nous (spirit or mind), phren (physical mind), and 
thiwios (Kama Rupa or passions) — we add the eidolo7i of the 
Mysteries (the shadowy form or human double), and the 
physical body, it will be easy to demonstrate that the ideas 
of both Pythagoras and Plato were identical with ours. 
Even the Egyptians held to the septenary division. They 
taught that the soul (Ego) in its exit had to pass through 
its seven chambers or principles — both those it left behind 
and those it took along with itself. The only difference is 
that, ever bearing in mind the penalty of revealing Mystery- 
doctrines, which was death, they gave out the teaching in 
broad outline, while we elaborate it and explain it in its 
details. But though we do give out to the world as much 
as is lawful, even in our doctrine more than one important 
detail is withheld, which those who study the Esoteric Philos- 
ophy and are pledged to silence are alone entitled to know. 

THE GREEK TEACHINGS, 

Inq. — We have magnificent Greek and Latin, Sanskrit and 
Hebrew scholars. How is it that we find nothing in their 
translations that would afford us a clue to what you say ? 

Theo. — Because your translators, their great learning 
notwithstanding, have made of the philosophers — the 
Greeks especially — misty instead of mystic writers. Take 
as an instance Plutarch, and read what he says of the '* prin- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 87 

ciples " of man. What he describes is accepted literally 
and attributed to metaphysical superstition and ignorance. 
Let me give you an illustration in point from this author : 

Man is compound ; and they are mistaken who think him to be com- 
pounded of two pai'ts only. For they imagine that the understanding 
[brain-intellect] is a part of the soul [the upper triad] ; but they err in 
this no less than those who make the soul to be a part of the body [i.e., 
those who make of the triad -psirt of the corruptible mortal quaternary^ 
For the understanding \jious\ as far exceeds the soul as the soul is 
better and diviner than the body. Now this composition of the soul 
[psuche'\ with the understanding \jiou5\ makes reason, and with the 
body [or thumos^ the animal soul] passion ; of which the one is the be- 
ginning or principle of pleasure and pain, and the other of virtue and 
vice. Of these three parts conjoined and compacted together, the earth 
has given the body, the moon the soul, and the sun the understanding, 
to the generation of man. 

This last sentence is purely allegorical, and will be com- 
prehended only by those who are versed in the esoteric sci- 
ence of correspondences and know what planet is related to 
every principle. Plutarch divides the principles into three 
groups, and makes of the body a compound of physical 
frame ^ astral shadow^ and breathy or the triple lower part, 
which '^ from earth was taken and to earth returns " ; of 
the middle principle and the mstinctual soul the second 
part, derived from and through, and ever influenced by, the 
moon ; * and only of the higher part, or the spiritual soul 
(Buddhi), with the dtmic and mdnasic elements in it, does 
he make a direct emanation of the sun, who stands here for 
To Agatho7t^ the Supreme Deity. This is proven by what 
he says further as follows : 

Now of the deaths we die, the one makes man two of three and the 
other one of [out of] two. The former is in the region and jurisdic- 
tion of Demeter ; whence the name given to the Mysteries, reT^elVf re- 
sembled that given to death, reAevrdv. The Athenians also heretofore 

* The Kabalists who know the relation of Jehovah, the life and children giver, to 
the moon, and the influence of the latter on generation, will again see the point as 
much as will some astrologers. 



88 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

called the deceased sacred to Demeter. As for the other death, it is in 
the moon or region of Persephone. 

Here you have our doctrine, which shows man a septe- 
nary during life ; a quintile just after death, in Kamaloka ; 
and a triad. Ego, spirit-soul, and consciousness in Deva- 
chan. This separation, first in the '' Meadows of Hades," 
as Plutarch calls the Kamaloka, then in Devachan, was 
part and parcel of the performances during the Sacred 
Mysteries, when the candidates for initiation enacted the 
whole drama of death and the resurrection as a glorified 
spirit, by which name we mean consciousness. This is what 
Plutarch means when he says : 

And as with the one, the terrestrial, so with the other, celestial, 
Hermes doth dwell. This suddenly and with violence plucks the soul 
from the body ; but Proserpina mildly and in a long time disjoins the 
understanding from the soul. * For this reason she is called monogenesy 
only begotten, or rather begetting one alone; for the better part of 
man becomes alone when it is separated by her. Now both the one 
and the other happens thus according to nature. It is ordained by 
Fate [Fatum or Karma] that every soul, whether with or without un- 
derstanding [mind], when gone out of the body, should wander for a 
time — though not all for the same — in the region lying between the 
earth and moon [Kamaloka]. t For those who have been unjust and 
dissolute suffer then the punishment due to their offenses ; but the 
good and virtuous are there detained till they are purified and have, 
by expiation, purged out of them all the infections they might have con- 
tracted from the contagion of the body, as if from foul health — living in 
the mildest part of the air, called the Meadows of Hades, where they 
must remain for a certain prefixed and appointed time. And then, as 
if they were returning from a wandering pilgrimage or long exile into 
their country, they have a taste of joy, such as they principally receive 
who are initiated into Sacred Mysteries, mixed with trouble, admira- 
tion, and each one's proper and peculiar hope. 

* Proserpina, or Persephone, stands here for post-mortem Karma, which is said to 
regulate the separation of the lower from the higher ** principles " — the soul, as ne- 
phesh, the breath of animal life, which remains for a time in Kamaloka, from the 
higher compound Ego, which goes into the state of Devachan, or bliss, 

t Until the separation of the higher, spiritual ** principle " from the lower principles, 
which remain in Kdmaloka until disintegrated. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 89 

This is nirvanic bliss, and no Theosophist could describe 
in plainer though esoteric language the mental joys of 
Devachan, where every man has his paradise around him, 
created by his consciousness. But you must beware of the 
general error into which too many even of our Theosophists 
fall. Do not imagine that because man is called septenary, 
then quintuple and a triad, he is a compound of seven, five, 
or three entities ; or, as well expressed by a Theosophical 
writer, of skins to be peeled off like the skins of an onion. 
The "principles," as already said — save the body, the life, 
and the astral eidolon^ all of which disperse at death — are 
simply aspects and states of consciousness. There is but one 
real man, enduring through the cycle of life and immortal 
in essence, if not in form, and this is Manas, the mind-man 
or embodied consciousness. The objection made by the 
materialists, who deny the possibility of mind and con- 
sciousness acting without matter, is worthless in our case. 
We do not deny the soundness of their argument, but we 
simply ask our opponents: Are you acquainted with all 
the states of matter — you who knew hitherto but of three ? 
And how do you know whether that which we refer to as 
Absolute Consciousness or Deity, forever invisible and un- 
knowable, be not that which, though it forever eludes our 
human finite conception, is still universal spirit-matter or 
matter-spirit in its absolute infinitude ? It is then one of 
the lowest, and in its manvantaric manifestations frac- 
tioned, aspects of this spirit-matter which is the conscious 
Ego that creates its own paradise — a fools' paradise, it may 
be, still a state of bliss. 

Inq. — Btit what is Devachan ? 

Theo. — The "land of Gods," Kterally; a condition, a 
state of mental bliss. Philosophically, a mental condition 
analogous to, but far more vivid and real than, the most 
vivid dream. It is the state after death of most mortals. 



VII. 
ON THE VARIOUS POST-MORTEM STATES. 



THE PHYSICAL AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN. 

Inq. — I am glad to hear you believe in the immortality of 
the soul. 

Theo. — Not of the soul, but of the divine spirit; or 
rather in the immortahty of the reincarnating Ego. 

Inq. — What is the difference ? 

Theo. — A very great one in our philosophy ; but this is 
too abstruse and difficult a question to touch lightly upon. 
We shall have to analyze them separately, and then in con- 
junction. We may begin with spirit. 

We say that the spirit — the '' Father in secret " of Jesus 
— or Atman is no individual property of any man, but is 
the divine essence which has no body, no form, which is 
imponderable, invisible, and indivisible, that which does 
not exist and yet is^ as the Buddhists say of Nirvana. It 
only overshadows the mortal, that which enters into him 
and pervades the whole body being but its omnipresent rays, 
or light, radiated through Buddhi, its vehicle and direct 
emanation. This is the secret meaning of the assertions 
of almost all the ancient philosophers when they said that 

90 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 91 

" the rational part of man^s soul " * never enters wholly into 
the man, but only overshadows him more or less through 
the irrational spiritual soul, or Buddhi.t 

Inq. — / labored under the impression that the '' animal 
souV^ alone was irratiofial^ a?id not the ^* divine soul^ 

Theo. — You have to learn the difference between that 
which is negatively or passively irrational, because undiffer- 
entiated, and that w^hich is irrational because too active and 
positive. Man is a correlation of spiritual powers, as well 
as a correlation of chemical and physical forces, brought 
into function by what we call " principles." 

Inq. — / have read a good deal upon the subject^ and it 
seems to me that the notions of the older philosophers differed 
a great deal fro7n those of the medieval Kabalists, though they 
do agree in some particulars, 

Theo. — The most substantial difference between them 
and us is this: while we beHeve, with the Neoplatonists 
and the Eastern teachings, that the spirit (Atma) never de- 
scends hypostatically into the living man, but only showers 
more or less its radiance on the in7ier man — the psychic 
and spiritual compound of the astral principles — the Kaba- 
lists maintain that the human spirit, detaching itself from 
the ocean of light and universal spirit, enters man's soul, 
where it remains throughout life imprisoned in the astral 
capsule. All Christian Kabalists still maintain the same, as 
they are unable to break quite loose from their anthropo- 
morphic and biblical doctrines. 

Inq. — And what do you say ? 

^ In its generic sense, the word " rational" meaning something emanating from the 
Eternal Wisdom. 

t Irrational in the sense that as 2iptire emanation of the Universal Mind it can have 
no individual reason of its own on this plane of matter, but, like the moon, who bor- 
rows her light from the sun and her life from the earth, so Buddhi, receiving its light 
of wisdom from AtmA, gets its rational qualities from Manas. As something homo- 
geneous, however, it is devoid of attributes per se. 



92 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

' Theo. — We say that we only allow the presence of the 
radiation of spirit, or Atma, in the astral capsule, and so 
far only as that spiritual radiancy is concerned. We say 
that man and soul have to conquer their immortality by 
ascending toward the unity with which, if successful, they 
will be finally linked, and into which they are finally, so to 
speak, absorbed. The individualization of man after death 
depends on the spirit, not on his soul and body. Although 
the word " personality," in the sense in which it is usually 
understood, is an absurdity if applied literally to our im- 
mortal essence, still the latter is, as our individual Ego, a 
distinct entity, immortal and eternal per se. It is only in 
the case of black magicians or of criminals beyond redemp- 
tion — criminals who have been such during a long series of 
lives — that the shining thread which links the spirit to the 
personal soul from the moment of the birth of the child is 
violently snapped, and the disembodied entity becomes 
divorced from the personal soul, the latter being annihi- 
lated without leaving the smallest impression of itself on 
the former. If this union between the lower or personal 
Manas and the individual reincarnating Ego has not been 
effected during life, then the former is left to share the fate of 
the lower animals — to gradually dissolve into ether and have 
its personality annihilated. But even then the spiritual Ego 
remains a distinct being. It only loses — after that special, 
and in that case, indeed, useless life — one devachanic state 
which it would otherwise have enjoyed as that idealized per- 
sonality, and is reincarnated almost immediately, after en- 
joying for a short time its freedom as a planetary spirit. 

Inq. — // is stated in Isis Unveiled that such planetary 
spirits or angels^ *' the gods of the pagans or the archangels of 
the Christians'^ will never be men 07t otir planet, 

Theo. — Quite right. Not '* such planetary spirits," but 
some classes of higher planetary spirits. They will never 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 93 

be men on this planet, because they are Hberated spirits 
from a previous; eariier world, and as such they cannot re- 
become men on this earth. Yet all these will live again in 
the next and far higher mahdmanvantara^ after this " Great 
Age " and its Brahmic pralaya (a little period of sixteen 
figures or so) are over. For you must have heard, of 
course, that Eastern philosophy teaches us that mankind 
consists of such ''spirits" imprisoned in human bodies. 
The difference between animals and men is this: the 
former are ensouled by the '' principles " potentially^ the 
latter actually,^ Do you now understand the difference ? 

Inq. — Yes ; but this specialization has beeii in all ages the 
stumbling-block of metaphysicians, 

Theo. — It has. The whole esotericism of the Buddhistic 
philosophy is based on this mysterious teaching, under- 
stood by so few, and so totally misrepresented by many of 
the most learned modern scholars. Even metaphysicians 
are too inclined to confound the effect with the cause. 
An Ego who has won his immortal life as spirit will remain 
the same Inner Self throughout all his rebirths on earth ; 
but this does not imply necessarily that he must either 
remain the Mr. Smith or Mr. Brown he was on earth, or 
lose his individuality. Therefore the astral soul and the 
terrestrial body of a man may, in the dark hereafter, be 
absorbed into the cosmical ocean of sublimated elements, 
and he may cease to feel his last perso7ial Ego (if it did not 
deser\^e to soar higher) ; and yet his divine Ego may still 
remain the same unchanged entity, though this terrestrial 
experience of its emanation may be totally obHterated at 
the instant of separation from the unworthy vehicle. 

Inq. — If the spirit^ or the divine portion of the soul, ispreex- 
istent as a distinct being from all eter7tity , as Origen, Synesius, 

* This is fully explained in the Commentaries of the second volume of Tkg Secret 
Doctrine. 



94 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

and other semi- Christians and semi-Platonic philosophers 
taught^ and if it is the safne, and nothi?ig more tha?i the meta- 
physically objective soiil^ how ca7i it be otherwise than eternal? 
And what matters it, in such a case, whether mail leads a pure 
or an a?iimal life, if do what he may, he can never lose his 
individuality ? 

Theo. — This doctrine, as you have stated it, is just as 
pernicious in its consequences as that of vicarious atone- 
ment. Had the latter dogma, in company with the false 
idea that we are all immortal, been demonstrated to the 
world in its true light, humanity would have been bettered 
by its propagation. 

Let me repeat to you again : Pythagoras, Plato, Timaeus 
of Locris, and the old Alexandrian school derived the soul 
of man, or his higher " principles '* and attributes, from the 
Universal World-Soul, the latter being, according to their 
teachings, ^ther (Pater-Zeus). Therefore none of these 
*' principles " can be the unalloyed essence of the Pythago- 
rean monas, or our Atma, because the ani7?ia mtindi is but 
the effect — the subjective emanation or rather radiation — 
of the 7?ionas, Both the human spirit, or the individuality, 
the reincarnating spiritual Ego, and Buddhi, the spiritual 
soul, are preexistent. But while the former exists as a dis- 
tinct entity, an individualization, the soul exists as preexist- 
ing breath, a nescient portion of an intelligent whole. Both 
were originally formed from the eternal ocean of light; 
but as the Fire- Philosophers, the medieval Theosophists, 
expressed it, there is a visible as well as invisible spirit in 
fire. They made a difference between the anima bruta and 
the afiima divina. Empedocles firmly believed all men and 
animals to possess two souls ; and in Aristotle we find that 
he calls one the reasoning soul (voo<;) and the other the ani- 
mal soul (<]^D)^-fi). According to these philosophers, the 
reasoning soul comes from within the Universal Soul, and 
the other from without. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 95 

Inq. — Would you call the soul, i,e., the human thinking 
soul, or what you call the Ego, matter? 

Theo. — Not matter, but substa?tce, assuredly ; nor would 
the word ''matter/' if prefixed with the adjective ''primor- 
dial," be a word to avoid. This matter, we say, is coeter- 
nal with spirit, and is not our visible, tangible, and divisible 
matter, but its extreme sublimation. Pure spirit is but one 
remove from the ;/(?-spirit, or the absolute All, Unless you 
admit that man was evolved out of this primordial spirit- 
matter, and represents a regular progressive scale of " prin- 
ciples " from superspirit down to the grossest matter, how 
can we ever come to regard the i7iner man as immortal, and 
at the same time as a spiritual entity and a mortal man ? 

Inq. — 77ieft why should you ?tot believe i?t God as such an 
entity ? 

Theo. — Because that which is infinite and uncondi- 
tioned can have no form, and cannot be a being — not in 
any Eastern philosophy worthy of the name, at any rate. 
An "entity" is immortal, but is so only in its ultimate 
essence, not in its individual form, when at the last point 
of its cycle it is absorbed into its primordial nature ; and 
it becomes spirit when it loses its name of entity. 

Its immortality as a form is limited only to its life-cycle 
or the mahdmanvantara, after which it is one and identical 
with the Universal Spirit, and no longer a separate entity. 
As to the personal soul — by which we mean the spark of 
consciousness that preserves in the spiritual Ego the idea 
of the personal " I " of the last incarnation— this lasts, as 
a separate distinct recollection, only throughout the deva- 
chanic period, after which time it is added to the series of 
other innumerable incarnations of the Ego, hke the re- 
membrance in our memory of one of a series of days at 
the end of a year. Will you bind the infinitude you claim 
for your God to finite conditions ? That alone which is 



96 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY. 

indissolubly cemented by Atma — viz., Buddhi- Manas — is 
immortal. The soul of man — i.e., of the personality — -per se 
is neither immortal, eternal, nor divine. Says the Zohar : 

The soul, when sent to this earth, puts on an earthly garment, 
to preserve herself here ; so she receives above a shining garment, in 
order to be able to look without injury into the mirror, whose light 
proceeds from the Lord of Light. 

Moreover, the Zohar teaches that the soul cannot reach 
the abode of bHss unless she has received the ''holy kiss," 
or the reunion of the soul with the substance fro 711 which she 
emanated — spirit. All souls are dual ; and while the latter 
is a feminine principle, the spirit is masculine. While im- 
prisoned in body, man is a trinity, unless his pollution is 
such as to have caused his divorce from the spirit. *' Woe 
to the soul which prefers to her divine husband [spirit] the 
earthly wedlock with her terrestrial body," records a text 
of the Book of the Keys — a Hermetic work. Woe indeed ; 
for nothing will remain of that personality to be recorded 
on the imperishable tablets of the Ego's memory. 

Inq. — How ca7i that which ^ if not breathed by God into 
man^ is yet, on your own confession, of an identical substance 
with the divine, fail to be immortal ? 

Theo. — Every atom and speck of matter, not of sub- 
stance only, is imperishable in its essence, but rot in its in- 
dividual consciousness. Immortality is but one's unbroken 
consciousness, and the personal consciousness can hardly 
last longer than the personality itself. And such conscious- 
ness, as I have already told you, survives only throughout 
Devachan, after which it is reabsorbed, first in the individ- 
ual, and then in the universal consciousness. Better in- 
quire of your theologians how it is that they have so sorely 
jumbled up the Jewish Scriptures. Read the Bible, if you 
would have a good proof that the writers of the Pentateuch 
— Genesis especially — never regarded nephesh — that which 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 97 

God breathes into Adam (Gen. ii. 7) — as the immortal soul. 
Here are some instances : '' And God created . . . every 
life \nephesJi\ that moveth " (Gen. i. 21), meaning animal. 
"And man became a living soul \7iepheshY' (Gen. ii. 7), 
which shows that the word 7iephesh was indifferently applied 
to immortal man and to 77tortal beast. '' And surely your 
blood of your lives \iiepheshim\ will I require : at the hand 
of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man " 
(Gen. ix. 5). '' Escape for thy life ^^lephesh^ " (Gen. xix. 17). 
"Let us not kill him" (Gen. xxxvii. 21). "Let us not kill 
his nephesh " is the Hebrew text. " Nephesh for nephesh^^ 
says Leviticus. " He that killeth any man shall surely be 
put to death " — Hterally, " He that smiteth the nephesh of 
a man" (Lev. xxiv. 17). "And he that killeth a beast 
\nephesh\ shall make it good; beast for beast" {ibid.^ 18), 
whereas the original text has it '^nephesh for nephesh^ 
How could man kill that which is immortal ? This ex- 
plains, also, why the Sadducees denied the immortality of 
the soul, and also affords another proof that very probably 
the Mosaic Jews — the uninitiated, at any rate — never be- 
lieved in the soul's survival at all. 



ON ETERNAL REWARD AND PUNISHMENT, AND 
ON NIRVANA, 

Inq. — // is hardly necessary^ I suppose^ to ask you whether 
you believe in the Christian dogmas of paradise and hell, or in 
future rewards and punishments as taught by the orthodox 
churches ? 

Theo. — As described in your catechisms, we reject them 
absolutely ; least of all would we accept their eternity. But 
we believe firmly in what we call the Law of Retribution^ 
and in the absolute justice and wisdom guiding this law, 
or Karma. Hence we positively refuse to accept the cruel 



98 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

and unphilosophical belief in eternal reward or eternal pun- 
ishment. We say with Horace : 

Let rules be fixed that may our rage contain, 
And punish faults with a proportion' d pain ; 
But do not flay him who deserves alone 
A whipping for the fault that he has done. 

This is a rule for all men, and a just one. Have we to be- 
lieve that God, whom you make the embodiment of wis- 
dom, love, and mercy, is less entitled to these attributes 
than mortal man ? 

Inq. — Have you any other reaso7is for rejecting this dogma ? 

Theo. — Our chief reason for so doing is the fact of re- 
incarnation. As already stated, we reject the idea of a 
new soul created for every newly born babe. We believe 
that every human being is the bearer, or vehicle, of an Ego 
coeval with every other Ego ; because all Egos are of the 
same essence and belong to the primeval emanation from 
one universal infinite Ego. Plato calls the latter the Logos 
(or the second manifested God) ; and we, the manifested 
Divine Principle, which is one with the Universal Mind or 
Soul — not the anthropomorphic, extracosmic, and personal 
God in which so many theists beHeve. Pray do not confuse. 

Inq. — But where is the difficulty^ once you accept a mani- 
fested Principle^ in believi?ig that the soul of every new mortal 
is created by that Principle^ as all the souls before it have been 
so created? 

Theo. — Because that which is impersonal can hardly 
create, plan, and think, at its own sweet will and pleasure. 
Being a universal Law, immutable in its periodical manifes- 
tations — those of radiating and manifesting its own essence 
at the beginning of every new cycle of life — It is not sup- 
posed to create men, only to repent a few years later of 
having created them. If we have to beHeve in a Divine 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 99 

Principle at all, it must be in one which is as absolute har- 
mony, logic, and justice, as it is absolute love, wisdom, and 
impartiality ; and a God who would create every soul for 
the space of one brief span of Hfe, regardless of the fact 
whether it has to animate the body of a wealthy, happy 
man or that of a poor suffering wretch, hapless from birth 
to death, though he has done nothing to deserve his cruel 
fate, would be rather a senseless fiend than a God.* Why, 
even the Jewish philosophers, believers in the Mosaic Bible 
(esoterically, of course), have never entertained such an idea. 
Moreover, they beheved in reincarnation, as we do. 

Inq. — Ca?i you give 77ie some i?ista?ices as a proof of this ? 

Theo. — Most decidedly I can. Philo Judaeus says : 

The air is full of them [of souls] ; . . . those which are nearest the 
earth, descending to be tied to mortal bodies, TraTuvSpofiomiv avOtg, 
return to other bodies^ being desirous to live in themA 

In the Zohar the soul is made to plead her freedom be- 
fore God: 

Lord of the universe! I am happy in this world, and do not wish to 
go into another world, where I shall be a handmaid, and be exposed 
to all kinds of pollutions 4 

The doctrine of fatal necessity, the everlasting immutable 
law, is asserted in the answer of the Deity : 

Against thy will thou becomest an embryo, and against thy will thou 
art born. % 

Light would be incomprehensible without darkness to 
make it manifest by contrast; good would be no longer 
good without evil to show the priceless nature of the boon ; 
and so personal virtue could claim no merit unless it had 
passed through the furnace of temptation. Nothing is eter- 

* See, further, '* On the Reward and Punishment of the Ego." 
1 De Gignat, p. 222 c; De Sontniis, 455 D. 

* Zohar ^ ii., 96. 

§ Mishna, Aboth, iv., 29. 



100 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

nal and unchangeable save the concealed Deity. Nothing 
that is finite — whether because it had a beginning or must 
have an end — can remain stationary ; it must either pro- 
gress or recede ; and a soul which thirsts after a reunion 
with its spirit, which alone confers upon it immortality, 
must purify itself through cyclic transmigrations onward 
toward the only land of bliss and eternal rest, called in the 
Zohar the '' Palace of Love," TO,T\'^ S2^'^ ; in the Hindu 
rehgion, '' Moksha " ; among the Gnostics, the '* Pleroma 
of Eternal Light " ; and by the Buddhists, '' Nirvana." And 
all these states are temporary, not eternal. 

Inq. — Yet there is no rehicaiiiation spoken of in all this, 

Theo. — A soul which pleads to be allowed to remain 
where she is must be preexistent, and not have been cre- 
ated for the occasion. In the Zohar^ however, there is a 
still better proof. Speaking of the reincarnating Egos, the 
rational souls, those whose last personality has to fade out 
entirely, it is said : 

All souls which are not guiltless in this world have already alienated 
themselves in heaven from the Holy One (blessed be he) ; they have 
thrown themselves into an abyss at their very existence, and have an- 
ticipated the time when they are to descend (once more) on earth.* 

The " Holy One " means here, esoterically, the Atman, or 
Atma-Buddhi. 

Inq. — Moreover^ it is very strange to find Nirvana spoken 
of as something synojtymous with the kingdom of heaven, or 
paradise, since according to every Orientalist of note Nirvana 
is a synonym of aiinihilation ! 

Theo. — Taken literally, with regard to the personality 
and differentiated matter ; but not otherwise. These ideas 
on reincarnation and the trinity of man were held by many 

* iii., 6i ^. The above quotations are from K. R. H. Mackenzie's Masonic CyclO' 
Pedia, art. ** Kabbalah." 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 101 

of the early Christian fathers. It is the jumble made by 
the translators of the New Testament and ancient philo- 
sophical treatises between soul and spirit that has occa- 
sioned the many misunderstandings. It is also one of the 
many reasons why Buddha, Plotinus, and so many other 
Initiates are now accused of having longed for the total 
extinction of their souls — '' absorption into the Deity," or 
"reunion with the Universal Soul," meaning, according to 
modern ideas, annihilation. The personal soul must, of 
course, be disintegrated into its particles before it is able 
to link its purer essence forever with the immortal spirit. 
But the translators of both the Acts and the Epistles, who 
laid the foundation of the kingdom of heaven^ and the 
modern commentators on the Buddhist Sutta of ih^ foun- 
dation of the kingdom of right€ous7iess^ have muddled the 
sense of the great Apostle of Christianity as of the great 
reformer of India. The former have smothered the word 
psuchikos (4^oxty.6c) so that no reader imagines it to have any 
relation with soul ; and with this confusing together of soul 
and spirit, Bible readers get only a perverted sense of any- 
thing on the subject. On the other hand, the interpreters 
of Buddha have failed to understand the meaning and 
object of the Buddhist four degrees of Dhyana. Ask the 
Pythagoreans : Can that spirit which gives life and motion 
and partakes of the nature of light be reduced to nonentity ? 
Can even that sensitive spirit in brutes which exercises 
memory — one of the rational faculties — die and become 
nothing ? observe the Occultists. In Buddhistic philosophy 
'' annihilation " means only a dispersion of matter, in what- 
ever form or semblance of form it may be ; for everything 
that has form is temporary, and is, therefore, really an illu- 
sion. For in eternity the longest periods of time are as the 
wink of an eye. So with form. Before we have time to 
realize that we have seen it, it is gone like an instantaneous 
flash of Hghtning, and passed forever. When the spiritual 



102 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

entity breaks loose forever from every particle of matter, 
substance, or form, and re-becomes a spiritual breath, then 
only does it enter upon the eternal and unchangeable Nir- 
vana, lasting as long as the cycle of life has lasted — an 
eternity, truly. And then that Breath, existing i7i spirit^ is 
7iothi7ig because it is all ; as a form, a semblance, a shape, 
it is completely annihilated ; as absolute spirit it still is^ for 
it has become, to coin a word, be-ness itself. The very 
phrase " absorbed in the universal essence,'* when used of 
the soul as spirit, means ii7iio7i with. It can never mean 
annihilation, for that would mean eternal separation. 

Inq. — Do you 710 1 lay yourself ope7i to the acaisatio7i of 
preachi7ig a7i7tihilatio7i by the la7iguage you yourself use ? 
You have fust spoke7i of the soul of 77ian retur7ii7ig to its pri- 
iTiordial ele77ie7its. 

Theo. — But you forget that I have given you the differ- 
ences between the various meanings of the word *'soul," 
and shown the loose way in which the term ''spirit*' has 
been hitherto translated. We speak of an animal, a human, 
and a spiritual soul, and distinguish between them. Plato, 
for instance, calls ''rational soul" that which we call Bud- 
dhi, adding to it the adjective of "spiritual," however; but 
that which we call the reincarnating Ego, Manas, he calls 
spirit, 7wus^ etc., whereas we apply the term "spirit," when 
standing alone and without any qualification, to Atma only. 
Pythagoras repeats our archaic doctrine when stating that 
the Ego (7ious) was eternal with Deity ; that the soul only 
passed through various stages to arrive at divine excellence ; 
while thu77ios returned to the earth, and even the phren^ the 
lower Manas, was eliminated. Again, Plato defines soul 
(Buddhi) as "the motion that is able to move itself." 
"Soul," he adds [Laws, x.), "is the most ancient of all 
things, and the commencement of motion " — thus calling 
Atma-Buddhi soul, and Manas spirit, which we do not. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 103 

Soul was generated prior to body, and body is posterior and secon- 
dary, as being, according to Nature, ruled over by the ruling soul. . . . 
The soul which administers all things that are moved, in every way, 
administers likewise the heavens. . . . 

Soul, then, leads everything in heaven, and on earth, and in the sea, 
by its movements — the names of which are, to will, to consider, to take 
care of, to consult, to form opinions true and false, to be in a state of 
joy, sorrow, confidence, fear, hate, love, together with all such primary 
movements as are allied to these. . . . Being a goddess herself, she 
ever takes as an ally nous, a. god, and disciplines all things correctly 
and happily ; but when with anoia [not notis^ it works out everything 
the contrary. 

In this language, as in the Buddhist texts, the negative 
is treated as essential existence. " Annihilation " comes 
under a similar exegesis. The positive state is essential 
being, but no manifestation as such. When the spirit, in 
Buddhistic parlance, enters Nirvana, it loses objective exis- 
tence, but retains subjective being. To objective minds this 
is becoming absolute ''nothing"; to subjective, no-thi?ig — 
nothing to be displayed to sense. Thus their Nirvana 
means the certitude of individual immortality in spirit^ not 
in soul, which, though ''the most ancient of all things," is 
still — along with all the other Gods — a finite emanation in 
forms and individuality, if not in substance. 

Inq. — / do 7iot quite seize the idea yet, and ivotdd be tha?ik- 
ful to have you explai7i this to me by some illustratiojis. 

Theo. — No doubt it is very difficult to understand, espe- 
cially to one brought up in the regular orthodox ideas 
of the Christian church. Moreover, I must tell you one 
thing ; and this is that unless you have studied thoroughly 
well the separate functions assigned to all the human '' prin- 
ciples," and the state of all these after death, you will 
hardly realize our Eastern philosophy. 



104 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ON THE VARIOUS *' PRINCIPLES'' IN MAN 

Inq. — / have heard a good deal about this constitution of 
the ^^ inner 7na7i,^^ as you call it ^ but could never make *' head 
or tail 071' t,^' as the tra7islator of Le Co77ite de Gabalis ex- 
presses it. 

Theo. — Of course it is most difficult, and, as you say, 
puzzling to understand correctly and distinguish between 
the various aspects, called by us the ''principles," of the 
real Ego. It is the more so as there exists a notable differ- 
ence in the numbering of these principles by various East- 
ern schools, though at the bottom there is the same iden- 
tical substratum of teaching. 

Inq. — Do you 77iea7i the Vedd7itins, as a7i i7ista7ice ? Do 
they 710 1 divide your seve7i '^ pri7iciples " into five 07ily ? 

Theo. — They do ; but though I would not presume to 
dispute the point with a learned Vedantin, I may yet state 
as my private opinion that they have an obvious reason for 
it. With them it is only that compound spiritual aggregate 
which consists of various mental aspects that is called man 
Sit all, the physical body being, in their view, something 
beneath contempt, and merely an illusion. Nor is the 
Vedanta the only philosophy to reckon in this manner. 
Lao-Tze, in his Tao-te-King^ mentions only five principles, 
because he, like the Vedantins, omits to include two prin- 
ciples, namely, the spirit (Atma) and the physical body, the 
latter of which, moreover, he calls the ''cadaver." Then 
there is the Taraka Raja Yoga school. Its teaching recog- 
nizes only three " principles," in fact ; but then, in reality, 
their sthulopddhi, or physical body, in its waking, conscious 
state, their sukshmopddhi, the same body in svapna, or the 
dreaming state, and their kd7^anopadhi^ or "causal body," 
or that which passes from one incarnation to another, are 
all dual in their aspects, and thus make six. Add to this 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 105 

Atma^ the impersonal Divine Principle or the immortal ele- 
ment in man, undistinguished from the Universal Spirit, 
and you have the same seven again.* They are welcome 
to hold to their division ; we hold to ours. 

Inq. — The7i it see?ns almost the sa??ie as the division made 
by the mystic Christians : body^ soul, and spirit. 

Theo. — Just the same. We could easily make of the 
body the vehicle of the vital double ; of the latter the 
vehicle of life, or Prana; of Kama Rupa, or animal soul, 
the vehicle of the higher and the lower mind ; and make 
of this six principles, crowning the whole with the one im- 
mortal spirit. In Occultism every quahficative change in 
the state of our consciousness gives to man a new aspect ; 
and if it prevails and becomes part of the Hving and act- 
ing Ego, it must be (and is) given a special name, to dis- 
tinguish the man in that particular state from the man he 
is when he places himself in another state. 

Inq. — It is Just that which it is so difficult to understand, 

Theo. — It seems to me very easy, on the contrary, once 
that you have seized the main idea, i.e., that man acts on 
this or another plane of consciousness in strict accordance 
with his mental and spiritual condition. But such is the 
materialism of the age that the more we explain the less peo- 
ple seem capable of understanding what we say. Divide 
the terrestrial being called man into three chief aspects, if 
you like ; and unless you make of him a pure animal you 
cannot do less. Take his objective body; the thinking 
principle in him — which is only a little higher than the in- 
stinctual element in the animal — or the vital conscious soul ; 
and that which places him so immeasurably beyond and 
higher than the animal, i.e., his reasoning soul or spirit. 



* See, for a clearer explanation, The Secret Doctrine^ i., 157 (ist ed.); i., 181 
(3d ed.). 



106 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Well, if we take these three groups or representative en- 
tities, and subdivide them according to the occult teaching, 
what do we get ? 

First of all, spirit — in the sense of the absolute and there- 
fore indivisible All — or Atma. As this can neither be 
located nor limited in philosophy, being simply that which 
is in eternity, and which cannot be absent from even the 
tiniest geometrical or mathematical point of the universe 
of matter or substance, it ought not to be called, in truth, 
a " human " principle at all. Rather, and at best, it is, in 
metaphysics, that point in space which the human monad 
and its vehicle, man, occupy for the period of every life. 
Now that point is as imaginary as man himself, and in 
reality is an illusion, a mdyd; but then for ourselves, as for 
other personal Egos, we are a reality diu'ing that fit of illu- 
sion called Hfe, and we have to take ourselves into account 
— in our own fancy, at any rate — if no one else does. To 
make it more conceivable to the human intellect when first 
attempting the study of Occultism, and to solve the a-b-c 
of the mystery of man. Occultism calls this seventh prin- 
ciple the synthesis of the sixth, and gives it for vehicle the 
spiritual soul (Buddhi). Now the latter conceals a mystery 
which is never given to any one, with the exception of ir- 
revocably pledged chelds^ or those, at any rate, who can be 
safely trusted. Of course there would be less confusion 
could it only be told; but as this is directly concerned 
with the power of projecting one^s double consciously and 
at will, and as this gift, like the ''ring of Gyges," would 
prove very fatal to man at large and to the possessor of 
this faculty in particular, it is carefully guarded. But let 
us proceed with the "principles." This divine soul, or 
Buddhi, then, is the vehicle of the spirit. In conjunction 
these two are one, impersonal and without any attributes 
(on this plane, of course), but make two spiritual ''princi- 
ples." If we pass on to the human soul, Manas or mens^ 
every one will agree that the intelligence of man is dual. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, ' 107 

to say the least — e.g., the high-minded man can hardly 
become low-minded; the very intellectual and spiritual- 
minded man is separated by an abyss from the obtuse, 
dull, and material, if not animal-minded, man. 

Inq. — Buf why should not man be rather represented by 
two principles or two aspects ? 

Theo. — Every man has these two principles in him, one 
more active than the other ; and in rare cases one of them 
is entirely stunted in its growth, so to say, or paralyzed by 
the strength and predominance of the other aspect in every 
direction. These, then, are what we call the two principles 
or aspects of Manas, the higher and the lower ; the former, 
the higher Manas, or the thinking, conscious Ego, gravitat- 
ing toward the spiritual soul (Buddhi) ; and the latter, or its 
instinctual principle, attracted to Kama, the seat of animal 
desires and passions in man. Thus we have four principles 
justified, the last three being (i) the double, which we have 
agreed to call protean or plastic soul, the vehicle of (2) the 
life principle; and (3) the physical body. Of course no 
physiologist or biologist will accept these principles, nor 
can he make head or tail of them. And this is why, per- 
haps, none of them to this day understand either the func- 
tions of the spleen, the physical vehicle of the protean 
double, or those of a certain organ on the right side of 
man, the seat of the above-mentioned desires ; nor yet do 
they know anything of the pineal body, which is described 
as a gland with a little sand in it, whereas it is in truth the 
very seat of the highest and divinest consciousness in man 
— his omniscient, spiritual, and all-embracing mind. And 
this shows you still more plainly that we have neither in- 
vented these seven principles, nor are they new in the 
world of philosophy, as we can easily prove. 

Inq. — But what is it that reincarnates^ in your belief? 

Theo. — The spiritual, thinking Ego, the permanent prin- 
ciple in man, or that which is the seat of Manas. It is not 



108 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Atma, or even Atma-Buddhi, regarded as the dual monad, 
which is the individual or divine man, but Manas ; for At- 
man is the Universal All, and becomes the Higher Self of 
man only in conjunction with Buddhi, its vehicle, which 
Hnks It to the individuality or divine man. For it is the 
Buddhi- Manas — the united fifth and sixth principles — which 
is called the Causal Body by the Vedantins, and which 
is consciousness^ that connects It with every personality It 
inhabits on earth. Therefore, soul being a generic term, 
there are in men three aspects of soul: (i) the terrestrial 
or animal; (2) the human soul; and (3) the spiritual soul; 
these, strictly speaking, are one soul in its three aspects. 
Now of the first aspect nothing remains after death; of 
the second, nous or Manas, only its divine essence, if left 
u7isoiled, siurvives ; while the third, in addition to being im- 
mortal, becomes consciously divine, by the assimilation of 
the higher Manas. But to make it clear we have to say a 
few words first of all about reincarnation. 

Inq. — You will do well, as it is agaifist this doctrine that 
your eneinies fight the most ferociously, 

Theo. — You mean the Spiritualists ? I know ; and many 
are the absurd objections laboriously spun by them over 
the pages of their journals. So obtuse and malicious are 
some of them that they will stop at nothing. One of them 
recently found a contradiction — which he gravely dis- 
cusses in a letter to Light — in two statements picked out 
of Mr. Sinnett's lectures. He discovers this grave contra- 
diction in the two sentences : '^ Premature returns to earth- 
life, in the cases when they occur, may be due to karmic 
complication ; " and " There is no accident in the supreme 
act of divine justice guiding evolution." So profound a 
thinker would surely see a contradiction of the law of 
gravitation if a man stretched out his hand to stop a fall- 
ing stone from crushing the head of a child ! 



VIII. 
ON REINCARNATION OR REBIRTH. 



WHAT IS MEMORY ACCORDING TO THEOSOPHICAL 
TEACHING? 

Inq. — The pwst difficiclt thing for you will be to explain 
and give reasonable groimds for such a belief No Theoso- 
phist has ever yet succeeded in bringing forward a single valid 
proof to shake my skepticism. First of all ^ you have against 
this theory of reincarnatio7i the fact that no single 7nan has yet 
bee7i found to reme77iber that he has livedo least of all who he 
was duri7ig his previous life. 

Theo. — Your argument, I see, tends to the same old 
objection : the loss of memory in each of us of our previ- 
ous incarnation. You think it invalidates our doctrine ? 
- My answer is that it does not ; or that, at any rate, such 
an objection cannot be final. 

Inq. — I should like to hear your argtcme7its. 

Theo. — They are short and few. Yet when you take 
into consideration the utter inability of the best modem 
psychologists to explain to the world the nature of mind, 
and their complete ignorance of its potentiaHties and higher 
states, you have to admit that this objection is based on 
an a priori conclusion drawn from prima facie and circum- 

109 



110 THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY. 

stantial evidence more than anything else. Now, what is 
memory in your conception, pray ? 

Inq. — That which the generally accepted definition ex- 
plains : the faculty in our mind of reme??ibering a?td of retain- 
i?ig the knowledge of previous thoughts^ deeds ^ and events, 

Theo. — Please add to it that there is a great difference 
between the three accepted forms of memory. Besides 
memory in general you have reme?nbrance, recollectio7t^ and 
reininiscence^ have you not ? Have you ever thought over 
the difference ? Memory, remember, is a generic name. 

Inq. — Yet^ all these are o?ily synonyms, 

Theo. — Indeed, they are not — not in philosophy, at all 
events. Memory is simply an innate power in thinking 
beings, and even in animals, of reproducing past impres- 
sions by an association of ideas principally suggested by 
objective things or by some action on our external sensory 
organs. Memory is a faculty depending entirely on the 
more or less healthy and normal functioning of our phys- 
ical brain ; and remembrance and recollectio7i are the attri- 
butes and handmaidens of this memory. But re7niniscence 
is an entirely different thing. Reminiscence is defined by 
the modem psychologist as something intermediate be- 
tween remembrance and recollection, or : 

A conscious process of recalling past occurrences, but without thai, 
full and varied reference to particular things which characterizes recoU 
lection. 

Locke, speaking of recollection and remembrance, says: 

When an idea again recurs without the operation of the like object 
on the external sensory, it is remembrance ; if it be sought after by the 
mind, and with pain and endeavor found and brought again into view, 
it is recollection. 

But even Locke leaves reminiscence without any clear 
definition, because it is no faculty or attribute of our phys- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 111 

ical memory, but an intuitional perception apart from and 
outside our physical brain ; a perception which, being called 
into action by the ever-present knowledge of our spiritual 
Ego, covers all those visions in man which are regarded 
as abnormal — from the pictures suggested by genius to 
the ravings of fever and even madness — and are classed 
by science as having no existence outside of our fancy. 
Occultism and Theosophy, however, regard reminiscence 
in an entirely different hght. For us, while memory is 
physical and evanescent, and depends on the physiological 
conditions of the brain — a fundamental proposition with all 
teachers of mnemonics, who have the researches of modem 
scientific psychologists to back them — reminiscence is the 
memory of the soul. And it is this memory which gives 
the assurance to almost every human being, whether he 
understands it or not, of his having lived before and hav- 
ing to live again. Indeed, as Wordsworth has it : 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And Cometh from afar. 

Inq. — If it is 071 this kind of memory — -poetry and abnormal 
fancies^ o?t your own co7ifession — that you base your doctrine^ 
then you will convince very few^ I am afraid. 

Theo. — I did not confess it was a fancy. I simply said 
that physiologists and scientists in general regard such remi- 
niscences as hallucinations and fancy, to which *' learned " 
conclusion they are welcome. We do not deny that such 
visions of the past and glimpses far back into the corridors 
of time are abnormal, as contrasted with our normal daily 
life experience and physical memory. But we do maintain, 
with Professor W. Knight, that ''the absence of memory 
of any action done in a previous state cannot be a conclu- 
sive argument against our having lived through it." And 



112 THE KEY TO TIIEOSOFHY. 

every fair-minded opponent must agree with what is said 
in Butler's Lectures on Platonic Philosophy^ " that the feel- 
ing of extravagance with which it [preexistencej affects us 
has its secret source in materiaHstic or semi-materiaUstic 
prejudices." Besides which, we maintain that memory is, 
as Olympiodorus called it, simply '' fantasy," * and the 
most unreliable thing in us. Ammonius Saccas asserted 
that the only faculty in man directly opposed to prognosti- 
cation, or looking into futurity, is memory. Furthermore, 
remember that memory is one thing and mind or thought 
is another : memory is a recording machine, a register which 
very easily gets out of order ; but thoughts are eternal and 
imperishable. Would you refuse to believe in the existence 
of certain things or men only because your physical eyes 
have not seen them ? Would not the collective testimony 
of past generations who have seen Julius Csesar be a suffi- 
cient guaranty that he once lived ? Why should not the 
same testimony of the psychic senses of the masses be 
taken into consideration ? 

Inq. — But do yoti not think that these are too fine distiiic- 
tions to he accepted by the majority of mortals ? 

Theo. — Say, rather, by the majority of materialists. 
And to them we say: Behold, even in the short span of 
ordinary existence memory is too weak to register all the 
events of a lifetime. How frequently do even most im- 
portant events lie dormant in our memory until awakened 
by some association of ideas, or aroused to function and 
activity by some other link! This is especially the case 

* "The fantasy," says Olympiodorus, in Plato's Phcedo, "is an impediment to 
our intellectual conceptions ; and hence, when we are agitated by the inspiring influ- 
ence of the Divinity, if the fantasy intervenes, the enthusiastic energy ceases; for 
enthusiasm and the ecstasy are contrary to each other. Should it be asked whether 
the soul is able to energize without the fantasy, we reply that its perception of uni- 
versal proves that it is able. It has perceptions, therefore, independent of the fan- 
tasy ; at the same time, however, the fantasy attends in its energies, just as a storm 
pursues him who sails on the sea." 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 113 

with people of advanced age, who are always found suffer- 
ing from feebleness of recollection. When, then, we bear 
in mind what we know about the physical and the spiritual 
principles in man, it is not the fact that our memory has 
failed to record our precedent hfe and Uves that ought to 
surprise us, but the contrary, were it to happen. 



WHY DO WE NOT REMEMBER OUR PAST LIVES? 

Inq. — Yoii have given me a bird^s-eye view of the seven 
principles. How do you account for our complete loss of any 
recollection of having lived before^ in the light of what you 
have said concerning these principles ? 

Theo. — Very easily. Those principles which we call 
physical * are disintegrated after death together with their 
constituent elements, and memory along with the brain. 
This vanished memory of a vanished personality can con- 
sequently neither remember nor record anything in the sub- 
sequent reincarnation of the Ego. Reincarnation means 
that the Ego will be furnished with a new body, a new brain, 
and a 7iew memory. Therefore it would be as absurd to 
expect this new memory to remember that which it has 
never recorded as it would be to examine under a micro- 
scope a shirt which had never been worn by a murderer, 
and seek on it for the stains of blood which are to be found 
only on the clothes he has worn. It is not the clean shirt 
that we have to question, but the clothes worn during the 
perpetration of the crime ; and if these are burned and de- 
stroyed, how can you get at them ? 



* Namely, the body, life, passional and animal instincts, and the astral eidolon of 
every man, whether perceived in thought or our mind's eye, or objectively and sepa- 
rate from the physical body ; which principles we call Sthula Sharira, Prana, Kama 
Rupa, and Linga Sharira. None of these is denied by science, though it calls them 
by different names. 



114 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Inq. — Aye^ how can yon get at the certainty that the crime 
was ever conunitted at all, or that the man i7i the cleaii shirt 
ever lived before ? 

Theo. — Not by physical processes, most assuredly, nor 
by relying on the testimony of that which exists no longer. 
But there is such a thing as circumstantial evidence, since 
our wise laws accept it, more, perhaps, even than they 
should. To get convinced of the fact of reincarnation and 
past hves, one must put one's self eii 7'apport with one's real 
permanent Ego, not with one's evanescent memory. 

Inq. — But how caii people believe in that which they do not 
know, nor have ever seen, far less put themselves e?i rapport 
with it? 

Theo. — If people, and they the most learned, will be- 
lieve in the ''gravity," ''ether," "force," and what not of 
science — abstractions and working hypotheses which they 
have neither seen, touched, smelled, heard, nor tasted — why 
should not other people believe, on the same principle, in 
the permanent Ego, a far more logical and important 
*' working hypothesis " than any other ? 

Inq. — What is, finally, this mysterious eternal principle ? 
Can you explain its nature so as to 7?iake it compreheiisible to 
all? 

Theo. — The Ego which reincarnates is the individual — 
not personal — and immortal " I " ; the vehicle, in short, of 
the Atma-Buddhic monad ; that which is rewarded in De- 
vachan and punished on earth ; and that, finally, to which 
the reflection only of the skandhas, or attributes,* of every 
incarnation attaches itself. 



* There are five skandhas y or attributes, in the Buddhist teachings : ** riipa [form or 
body], material qualities; vedaiLa^ sensation: sauna, abstract ideas ; sanikhara^ ten- 
dencies of mind ; z'innana, mental powers. Of these we are formed ; by them we are 
conscious of existence ; and through them communicate with the world about us." 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 115 

Inq. — What do you mean by skandhas? 

Theo. — Just what I said — '' attributes," among which is 
memory. All of these perish like a flower, leaving behind 
them only a feeble perfume. Here is another paragraph 
from Colonel H. S. Olcott's Bitddhist Catechism^^ which 
bears directly upon the subject. It deals with the ques- 
tion as follows : 

The aged man remembers the incidents of his youth, despite his 
being physically and mentally changed. Why, then, is not the recol- 
lection of past lives brought over by us from our last birth into the 
present birth? 

Because memory is included within the skandhas, and the skandhas 
having changed with the new existence, a memory, the record of that 
particular existence, develops. Yet the record or reflection of all the 
past lives must survive ; for, when Prince Siddhartha became Buddha, 
the full sequence of his previous births was seen by him. . . . And 
any one who attains to the state oijhana can thus retrospectively trace 
the line of his lives. 

This proves to you that while the undying qualities of the 
personahty — such as love, goodness, charity, etc. — attach 
themselves to the immortal Ego, photographing on it, so 
to speak, a permanent image of the divine aspect of the 
man who was, his material skandhas — those which gener- 
ate the most marked karmic effects — are as evanescent as 
a flash of lightning, and cannot impress the new brain of 
the new personality; yet their failing to do so impairs in 
no way the identity of the reincarnating Ego. 

Inq. — Do you mean to infer that that which survives is 
oftly the soul-memory, as you call it, that soul or Ego being 
07ie and the sa?ne, while nothing of the perso?iality re?nains ? 

Theo. — Not quite ; something of each personality — un- 
less the latter was an absolute materialist, with not even a 

* By Henry S. Olcott, president and founder of the Theosophical Society. The 
accuracy of the teaching is sanctioned by the Rev. H. Sumangala, high priest of the 
Sripada and Galle, and principal of the Widyodaya Parivena (College) at Colombo, 
as being in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church. 



116 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

chink in his nature for a spiritual ray to pass through — 
must survive, as it leaves its eternal impress on the incar- 
nating permanent Self or spiritual Ego.* The personality, 
with its ska?idhas, is ever changing with every new birth. 
It is, as said before, only the part played by the actor, the 
true Ego, for one night. This is why we preserve no 
memory on the physical plane of our past hves, though the 
real Ego has lived them over and knows them all. 

Inq. — Then how does it happen that the real or spiritual 
man does not impress his new personal ''/" with this know- 
ledge ? 

Theo. — How is it that the servant-girls in a poor farm- 
house could speak Hebrew and play the violin in their 
trance or somnambulic state, and knew neither when in 
their normal condition ? Because, as every genuine psy- 
chologist of the old — not yoiu- modern — school will tell 
you, the spiritual Ego can act only when the personal Ego 
is paralyzed. The spiritual '' I " in man is omniscient and 
has every knowledge innate in it, while the personal self is 
the creature of its environment and the slave of the physical 
memory. Could the former manifest itself uninterruptedly 
and without impediment, there would be no longer men on 
earth, but we should all be Gods. 

Inq. — Still there ought to be exceptions^ and some ought to 
remember. 

Theo. — x\nd so they do. But who believes in their re- 
port ? Such sensitives are generally regarded as halluci- 
nated hysteriacs, as crack-brained enthusiasts or humbugs, 
by modern materialists. Let them read, however, works 
on this subject, preeminently Reincarnation : A Study of For- 



* Or the spiritual in contradistinction to the personal self. The student must not 
confuse this spiritual Ego^ with the Higher Self, which is Atma, the God within us, 
and inseparable from the Universal Spirit. (See Section IX., *• On Post-mortem and 
Postnatal Consciousness.") 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 117 

gotten Truths by E. D. Walker, F.T.S., and see in it the 
mass of proofs which the able author brings to bear on this 
vexed question. Speak to some people of soul, and they 
ask, What is soul ? Have you ever proved its existence ? 
Of course it is useless to argue with those who are mate- 
rialists. But even to them I would put the question, Can 
you remember what you were or what you did when a baby ? 
Have you preserved the smallest recollection of your life, 
thoughts, or deeds, or that you Hved at all diuring the first 
eighteen months or two years of your existence ? Then 
why not deny that you have ever Hved as a babe, on the 
same principle ? When to all this we add that the reincar- 
nating Ego, or individuality, retains during the devachanic 
period merely the essence of the experience of its past earth- 
life or personality, the whole physical experience involving 
into a state of i7i potentid^ or being, so to speak, translated 
into spiritual formulae ; when we remember, further, that the 
term between two rebirths is said to extend from ten to 
fifteen centuries — during which the physical consciousness 
is totally and absolutely inactive, having no organs to act 
through, and therefore no existence — the reason for the 
absence of all remembrance in the purely physical memory 
is apparent. 

Inq. — You just said that the spiritual Ego was omniscient. 
Where ^ then, is that vaunted omniscience during its devachanic 
life, as you call it ? 

Theo. — During that time it is latent and potential, be- 
cause, first of all, the spiritual Ego, the compound of Eud- 
dhi-Manas, is not the Higher Self, which, being one with 
the Universal Soul or Mind, is alone omniscient ; and, sec- 
ondly, because Devachan is the idealized continuation of 
the terrestrial life just left behind, a period of retributive 
adjustment, and a reward for unmerited wrongs and suffer- 
ings undergone in that special life. The spiritual Ego is 



118 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

omniscient only potentially in Devachan; it enjoys actual 
omniscience in Nirvana alone, when the Ego is merged in 
the Universal Mind-Soul. Nevertheless the Ego re-becomes 
quasi-omniscient during those hours on earth when certain 
abnormal conditions and physiological changes in the body 
make it free from the trammels of matter. Thus the exam- 
ples cited above of somnambulists — a poor servant speak- 
ing Hebrew, and another playing the violin — give you an 
illustration of the case in point. This does not mean that 
the explanations of these two facts offered us by medical 
science have no truth in them, for one girl had, years be- 
fore, heard her master, a clergyman, read Hebrew works 
aloud, and the other had heard an artist playing a violin at 
their farm. But neither could have done so as perfectly as 
they did had they not been ensouled by That which, owing 
to the sameness of its nature with the Universal Mind, is 
omniscient. In the former case the higher principle acted 
on the skandhas and moved them ; in the latter, the per- 
sonality being paralyzed, the individuality manifested itself. 
Pray do not confuse the two. 

ON INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY, 

Inq. — But what is the difference between the two ? I con- 
fess that I am still in the dark. 

Theo. — In his Buddhist Catechism^ Colonel Olcott, forced 
by the logic of Esoteric Philosophy, found himself obliged 
to correct the mistakes of previous Orientalists who made 
no such distinction, and gives the reader his reasons for it 
as follows : 

The successive appearances upon one or many earths, or ** descents 
into generation," of the tanhaically coherent parts {skandhas) of a 
certain being are a succession of personalities. In each birth the 
personality differs from that of the previous or next succeeding birth. 
Karma, the deus ex machind, masks (or, shall w^e say, reflects?) 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. Hd 

itself now in the personality of a sage, again as an artisan, and so on 
throughout the string of births. But though personalities ever shift, 
the one line of life along which they are strung like beads runs 
unbroken ; it is ever that particular line, never any other. It is there- 
fore individual, an individual vital undulation, which began in Nirvana, 
or the subjective side of Nature, as the light or heat undulation through 
ether began at its dynamic source ; is careering through the objective 
side of Nature under the impulse of Karma and the creative direction 
of tanha [the unsatisfied desire for existence] ; and leads through 
many cyclic changes back to Nirvana. Mr. Rhys-Da\ads calls that 
which passes from personality to personality along the individual 
chain ** character " or 'Moing." Since ^'character" is not a mere 
metaphysical abstraction, but the sum of one's mental qualities and 
moral propensities, w^ould it not help to dispel what Mr. Rhys-Davids 
calls *' the desperate expedient of a mystery" {Biiddhisjn, p. lOi), if 
we regarded the life-undulation as individuality, and each of its series 
of natal manifestations as a separate personality? The perfect individ- 
ual, Buddhistically speaking, is a Buddha, I should say ; for Buddha 
is but the rare flower of humanity, without the least supernatural ad- 
mixture. x\nd as countless generations (*' four asankheyyas and a 
hundred thousand cycles " — FausboU and Rhys-Davids's Buddhist 
Birth-Stories, p. 13) are required to develop a man into a Buddha, 
and the iron will to become one runs throughout all the sticcessive 
births, what shall we call that which thus wills and perseveres? 
Character? or individuality — an individuality but partly manifested in 
any one birth, but built up of fragments from all the births ? 

I have long tried to impress this distinction between the 
individuality and personality on people's minds; but alas! 
it is harder with some than to make them feel a reverence 
for childish impossibilities, only because they are orthodox, 
and because orthodoxy is respectable. To understand the 
idea well, you have to first study the dual sets of princi- 
ples : the spiritual, or those which belong to the imperish- 
able Ego ; and the material, or those principles which make 
up the ever-changing bodies or the series of personalities of 
that Ego. Let us fix permanent names to these, and say that : 

I. Atma, the Higher Self, is neither your spirit nor 
mine, but, like sunlight, shines on all. It is the uni- 



120 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

versally diffused Divine Principle, and is inseparable 
from its one and absolute superspirit, as the sun- 
beam is inseparable from sunlight. 
II. Buddhi, the spiritual soul, is only its vehicle. 
Neither Atma nor Buddhi separately, nor the two 
collectively, are of any more use to the body of 
man than sunlight and its beams are for a mass of 
granite buried in the earth, unless the divine duad 
is assimilated by, and reflected in, some conscious- 
ness. Neither Atma nor Buddhi is ever reached 
by Karma, because the former is the highest aspect 
of Karma, the working agent of Itself in one aspect, 
and the latter is unconscious 07i this plaiie. This 
consciousness or mind is 
III. Manas,* the derivation or product, in a reflected 
form, of ahainkdra^ ^^the conception of I" or '^Ego- 
ship." It is therefore, when inseparably united to 
the first two, called the spiritual Ego, and taijasa^ 
the radiant. This is the real individuality, or the 
divine man. It is this Ego which — having origi- 
nally incarnated in the senseless human form ani- 
mated by, but unconscious of, the presence in itself 
of the dual monad, since it had no consciousness — 
made of that human-like form a real man. It is this 
Ego, this '' causal body," which overshadows every 
personality into which Karma forces it to incarnate. 
It is this Ego which is held responsible for all the 
sins committed through and in every new body or 
personality — the evanescent masks which hide the 
true individual through the long series of rebirths. 

* Makat, or the universal mind, is the source of Manas. The latter is makai, i.e., 
mind in man. Manas is also called kshefrajna, embodied spirit, because it is, accord- 
ing to our philosophy, the mdnasa-Putras, or "sons of the universal mind," who 
created, or rather produced, the thinking man, vianu, by incarnating in the third, 
race mankind in our Round. It is Manas, therefore, which is the real incarnating 
and permanent spiritual Ego, the individuality, and our various and numberless per- 
sonalities only its external masks. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 121 

Inq. — But is this Just ? Why should this Ego receive pun- 
ishment as the result of deeds which it has forgotten ? 

Theo. — It has not forgotten them; it knows and re- 
members its misdeeds as well as you remember what you 
did yesterday. Is it because the memory of that bundle 
of physical compounds called '' body " does not recollect 
what its predecessor, the personality that was, did, that you 
imagine that the real Ego has forgotten them ? As well 
say it is unjust that the new coat on the back of a boy who 
is flogged for stealing apples should be punished for that 
of which it knows nothing. 

Inq. — But a7r there no modes of communication between 
the spiritual a?id human co?isciousness or ??ie77wry ? 

Theo. — Of course there are ; but they have never been 
recognized by your modern scientific psychologists. To 
what do you attribute intuition, the '' voice of conscience,'* 
premonitions, vague, undefined reminiscences, etc., if not 
to such communications ? Would that the majority of 
educated men, at least, had the fine spiritual perceptions 
of Coleridge, who shows how intuitional he is in some of 
his comments. Hear what he says with respect to the 
probabiHty that " all thoughts are in themselves imperish- 
able " : 

If the intelligent faculty [sudden *' revivals " of memory] should be 
rendered more comprehensive, it would require only a different and ap- 
propriate organization — the body celestial instead of the body terrestrial 
— to bring before every human soul the collective experience of its whole 
past existence {existences, rather] . 

And this body celestial is our manasic Ego. 



122 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

ON THE REWARD AND PUNISHMENT OF THE EGO, 

Inq. — I have heard you say that the EgOy whatever the life 
of the person he i7icar7iated m may have been 07i earthy is never 
visited with post-mortem punish7nent, 

Theo. — Never, save in very exceptional and rare cases, 
of which we will not speak here, as the nature of the 
" punishment " in no way approaches any of your theolog- 
ical conceptions of damnation. 

Inq. — But if the Ego is punished i7i this life for the 77iis- 
deeds committed i7i previous lives ^ then it ought to be rewarded 
also, whether here or whe7i disincar7iated, 

Theo. — And so it is. If we do not admit of any punish- 
ment outside of this earth, it is because the only state the 
spiritual Self knows of hereafter is that of unalloyed bliss. 

Inq. — What do you mean ? 

Theo. — Simply this : crimes and sins committed on a plane 
of objectivity and in a world of matter cannot receive punish- 
ment in a world of pure subjectivity. We believe in no hell 
or paradise as locahties; in no objective hell-fires and 
worms that never die, nor in any Jerusalems with streets 
paved with sapphires and diamonds. What we believe in 
is a post-mortem state or mental condition such as we are 
in during a vivid dream. AVe beHeve in an immutable law 
of absolute Love, Justice, and Mercy. And believing in 
it, we say: Whatever was the sin and whatever were the 
dire results of the original karmic transgression of the now 
incarnated Egos,* no man — or the outer material and peri- 

* It is on this transgression that the cruel and illogical dogma of the ** fallen angels " 
has been built, which is explained in the second volume of The Secret Doctrhte. All 
our Egos are thinking and rational entities {mdtiasa-ptitras) who had lived, whether 
under human or other forms, in the precedent life-cycle {7na?tvantara), and whose 
Karma it was to incarnate in the man of this one. It was taught in the Mysteries 
that, having delayed in complying with this law (or having ** refused to create," as 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 123 

odical form of the spiritual entity — can be held, with any 
degree of justice, responsible for the consequences of his 
birth. He does not ask to be born, nor can he choose the 
parents that will ^\w^ him hfe. In every respect he is a 
victim to his environment, the child of circumstances over 
which he has no control ; and if each of his transgressions 
were impartially investigated, it would be found that in 
nine out of every ten cases he was the one sinned against, 
rather than the sinner. Life is at best a heartless play, a 
stormy sea to cross, and a heavy burden often too difficult 
to bear. The greatest philosophers have tried in vain to 
fathom and find out its raison d^efre, and — except those 
who had the key to it, namely, the Eastern sages — have 
all failed. Life is, as Shakespeare describes it : 

. . . but a walking shadow — a poor player, 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more. It is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing — 

nothing in its separate parts, yet of the greatest importance 
in its collectivity or series of lives. In any case, almost 
every individual life is, in its fall development, a sorrow. 
And are we to beheve that poor helpless man, after being 
tossed about hke a piece of rotten timber on the angry bil- 
lows of life, is, if he proves too weak to resist them, to be 
punished by a sempiternity of damnation, or even a tempo- 
rary punishment ? Never ! Whether a great or an aver- 
age sinner, good or bad, guilty or innocent, once delivered 
of the burden of physical hfe, the tired and worn-out 7nanu, 
or '' thinking Ego," has won the right to a period of abso- 



Hind^ism says of the kumdras and Christian legend of the archangel Michael) — i.e., 
having failed to incarnate in due time — the bodies predestined for them became defiled. 
Hence the original sin of the senseless forms and the punishment of the Egos. What 
is meant by the rebellious angels being hurled down into hell is simply explained by 
these pure spirits or Egos being imprisoned in bodies of unclean matter, flesh. 



124 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

lute rest and bliss. The same unerringly wise and just, 
rather than merciful, Law which inflicts upon the incarnated 
Ego the karmic punishment for every sin committed dur- 
ing the preceding life on earth has provided for the now 
disembodied entity a long lease of mental rest, and the en- 
tire oblivion of every sad event — aye, to the smallest pain- 
ful thought — that took place in its last life as a personality, 
leaving in the soul-memory nothing but the reminiscence 
of that which was bhss, or which led to happiness. Plo- 
tinus, who said that our body was the true river of Lethe, 
for ''souls plunged into it forget all," meant more than he 
said. For, as our terrestrial body on earth is like Lethe, 
so is our celestial body in Devachan, and much more. 

Inq. — Then a?n I to imderstand that the murderer^ the 
transgressor of law divi7ie aiid hionan iii every shape ^ is al- 
lowed to go U7ipu7iished ? 

Theo. — Who ever said that ? Our philosophy has a 
doctrine of punishment as stern as that of the most rigid 
Calvinist, only far more philosophical and consistent with 
absolute justice. No deed, no sinful thought even, will 
go unpunished. In fact, the latter are even more severely 
punished than the former, as a thought is far more potent 
in creating evil results than deeds.* We believe in an un- 
erring law of retribution, called Karma, which asserts itself 
in a natural concatenation of causes and their unavoidable 
results. 

Inq. — A7id how, or whe7r, does it act ? 

Theo. — Every laborer is worthy of his hire, saith Wis- 
dom in the gospel ; every action, good or bad, is a prolific 
parent, saith the Wisdom of the Ages. Put the two to- 
gether and you will find the "why." After allowing the 

* **But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath 
committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matt. v. 28.) 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 125 

soul, when escaped from the pangs of personal life, a sufS- 
cient — aye, a hundredfold — compensation, Karma, with its 
army of skandhas, waits at the threshold of Devachan, 
whence the Ego reemerges to assume a new incarnation. 
It is at this moment that the future destiny of the now 
rested Ego trembles in the scales of just retribution, as // 
now falls once again under the sway of active karmic law. 
It is in this rebirth which is ready for // — a rebirth selected 
and prepared by this mysterious, inexorable, but, in the 
equity and wisdom of its decrees, infallible Law — that the 
sins of the previous life of the Ego are punished. Only it 
is into no imaginary hell, with theatrical flames and ridic- 
ulous tailed and horned devils, that the Ego is cast, but 
verily onto this earth, the plane and region of his sins, 
where he will have to atone for every bad thought and 
deed. As he has sown, so will he reap. Reincarnation 
will gather round him all those other Egos who have suf- 
fered, whether directly or indirectly, at the hands, or even 
through the unconscious instrumentality, of the past person- 
ality. They will be thrown by Nemesis in the way of the 
new man, concealing the old, the eternal Ego, and . . . 

Inq. — But where is the equity you speak of, siiice these new 
personalities are not awa7'e of having sinned or beeii si?27ied 
against ? 

Theo. — Has the coat torn to shreds from the back of the 
man who stole it, by another man who was robbed of it 
and recognizes his property, to be regarded as fairly dealt 
with ? The new person ahty is no better than a fresh suit 
of clothes, with its specific characteristics, color, form, and 
quahties ; but the real man who wears it is the same cul- 
prit as of old. It is the individuality which suffers through 
its personality. And it is this, and this alone, that can ac- 
count for the terrible seeming injustice in the distribution of 
lots in life to man. When your modern philosophers will 



126 THE KEY TO THE SOPHY, 

have succeeded in showing us good reason why so many 
apparently innocent and good men are born only to suffer 
during a whole lifetime ; why so many are born poor unto 
starvation in the slums of great cities, abandoned by fate 
and men ; why, while these are born in the gutter, others 
open their eyes to the light in palaces ; why a noble birth 
and fortune seem often given to the worst of men and only 
rarely to the worthy; why there are beggars whose i7tner 
selves are peers to the highest and noblest of men — when 
this, and much more, is satisfactorily explained by either 
your philosophers or theologians, then only, but not till 
then, you will have the right to reject the theory of rein- 
carnation. The highest and grandest poets have dimly 
perceived this truth of truths. Shelley believed in it; 
Shakespeare must have thought of it when writing on the 
worthlessness of birth. Remember his words : 

Why should my birth keep down my mounting spirit? 
Are not all creatures subject unto time? 
There's legions now of beggars on the earth, 
That their original did spring from kings, 
And many monarchs now, whose fathers were 
The riffraff of their age. 

Alter the word '* fathers " into Egos, and you will have the 
truth. 



IX. 
ON KAMALOKA AND DEVACHAN. 



ON THE FATE OF THE LOWER PRINCIPLES. 

Inq. — You spoke of Kdmaloka; what is it? 

Theo. — When the man dies his three lower principles 
leave him forever — i.e., body, life, and the vehicle of the 
latter, the astral body or the double of the living man. 
And then his four principles — the central or middle princi- 
ple (the animal soul or Kama Rupa), with what it has assim- 
ilated from the lower Manas and the higher triad — find 
themselves in Kamaloka. The latter is an astral locality, 
the lifnbus of scholastic theology, the hades of the ancients, 
and, strictly speaking, a locality only in a relative sense. It 
has neither a definite area nor boundary, but exists within 
subjective space, i.e., i» beyond our sensuous perceptions. 
Still it exists, and it is there that the astral eidolons of all 
the beings that have lived, animals included, await their 
'' second death." For the animals it comes with the disin- 
tegration and the entire fading out of their astral particles 
to the last. For the human eidolon it begins when the 
Atma-Buddhi-Manasic triad is said to '' separate " itself from 
its lower principles, or the reflection of the ex-personality, 
by falling into the devachanic state. 

Inq. — And what happens after this ? 

127 



128 THE KEY TO THEOSOFHY. 

Theo. — Then the kama-rupic phantom, remaining bereft 
of its informing, thinking principle, the higher Manas, and 
the lower aspect of the latter, the animal intelligence, no 
longer receiving Hght from the higher mind, and no longer 
having a physical brain to work through, collapses. 

Inq. — In what way ? 

Theo. — Well, it falls into the state of the frog when cer- 
tain portions of its brain are taken out by the vivisector. 
It can think no more, even on the lowest animal plane. 
Henceforth it is no longer even the lower Manas, since this 
"lower" is nothing without the "higher." 

Inq. — A7id is //this no7ientity which we find materializing 
in seance-rooms with 7nediums ? 

Theo. — It is this nonentity — a true nonentity, however, 
only as to reasoning or cogitating powers ; still an entity^ 
however astral and fluidic. This is shown in certain cases 
when this entity, being magnetically and unconsciously 
drawn toward a medium, is revived for a time and lives in 
him by proxy, so to speak. This "spook," or the Kama 
Rupa, may be compared with the jellyfish, which has an 
ethereal gelatinous appearance so long as it is in its own 
element, or water (the medium's specific aura) ; no sooner 
is it thrown out of the water, however, than it dissolves in 
the hand or on the sand, especially in sunlight. In the 
medium's aura it lives a kind of vicarious hfe, and reasons 
and speaks either through the medium's brain or those of 
other persons present. But this would lead us too far, and 
upon other people's grounds, whereon I have no desire to 
trespass. Let us keep to the subject of reincarnation. 

Inq. — What of the latter ? How long does the incarnat- 
ing Ego remain in the devachanic state ? 

Theo. — This, we are taught, depends on the degree of 
spirituality and the merit or demerit of the last incarna- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 129 

tion. The average time is from ten to fifteen centuries, as 
I have already told you. 

Inq. — But why could not this Ego ma?iifest and communi- 
cate with mortals as Spiritualists will have it? What is 
there to prevent a 7710 1 her from communicating with the chil- 
dren she left on earthy a husband with his wife, and so o?i ? 
It is a 77iost consoling belief, I must confess ; 7ior do I wonder 
that those who believe i7i it are so averse to give it up. 

Theo. — Nor are they forced to, unless they happen to 
prefer truth to fiction, however '' consoling." Uncongenial 
our doctrines may be to Spiritualists ; yet nothing of what 
we believe in and teach is half as selfish and cruel as what 
they preach. 

Inq. — / do not understand you. What is selfish ? 

Theo. — Their doctrine of the return of spirits, the real 
*' personalities," as they say ; and I will tell you why. If 
Devachan — call it "paradise," if you like; a ''place of 
bliss and of supreme felicity," if it is anything — is such a 
place, or say state, logic tells us that no sorrow, nor even 
a shade of pain, can be experienced therein. '' God shall 
wipe away all tears " from the eyes of those in paradise, we 
read in the book of many promises. And if the ''spirits 
of the dead " are able to return and see all that is going on 
on earth, and especially in their homes, what kind of bliss 
can be in store for them ? 



WHY THEOSOPHISTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE 
RETURN OF PURE ''SPIRITS.'' 

Inq. — What do you mean ? Why should this interfere with 
their bliss ? 

Theo. — It is quite simple ; let us take an instance. A 
mother dies, leaving behind her httle helpless children 



130 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

whom she adores ; perhaps a beloved husband also. We 
say that her spirit or Ego — that individuahty which is now 
wholly impregnated, for the entire devachanic period, with 
the noblest feehngs held by its late personality, with love 
for her children, pity for those who suffer, and so on — is 
now entirely separated from the '' vale of tears " ; that its 
future bliss consists in the blessed ignorance of all the woes 
it left behind. Spiritualists, on the contrary, say that it 
is as vividly aware of them, and viore so thafi before, for 
'* spirits see more than mortals in the flesh do." We say 
that the bhss of the Devachani consists in its complete con- 
viction that it has never left the earth, and that there is no 
such thing as death at all ; that the post-mortem spiritual 
consciousness of the mother will cause her to think that 
she lives surrounded by her children and all those whom 
she loved ; that no gap, no link, will be missing to make 
her disembodied state the most perfect and absolute happi- 
ness. The Spiritualists deny this point-blank. According 
to their doctrine, unfortunate man is not liberated even by 
death from the sorrows of this life. Not a drop from the 
Hf e-cup of pain and suffering will miss his lips ; and nolens 
volens, since he sees everything then, shall he drink it to the 
bitter dregs. Thus the loving wife, who during her lifetime 
was ready to save her husband sorrow at the price of her 
heart's blood, is now doomed to see, in utter helplessness, 
his despair, and to register every hot tear he sheds for her 
loss. Worse than that, she may see the tears dry too soon, 
and another beloved face smile on him, the father of her 
children ; find another woman replacing her in his affec- 
tions ; doomed to hear her children give the holy name of 
"mother" to one indifferent to them, and to see those little 
ones neglected, if not ill treated. According to this doc- 
trine, the ''gentle wafting to immortal life" becomes the 
way into a new path of mental suffering without any tran- 
sition. And yet the columns of the Banner of Light-, the 



THE KEY TO THEOSOFHY. 131 

veteran journal of the American Spiritualists, are filled with 
messages from the dead, the ''dear departed ones," who all 
write to say how very happy they are ! Is such a state of 
knowledge consistent with bliss? Then ''bliss" stands, in 
such a case, for the greatest curse, and orthodox damna- 
tion must be a relief in comparison to it ! 

Inq. — But how does your theory avoid this ? How can 
you reco7icile the theory of the souths otiiniscieiice with its blind- 
ness to that which is taking place on earth ? 

Theo. — Because such is the law of love and mercy. 
During every devachanic period the Ego, omniscient as it 
is per se, clothes itself, so to say, with the reflection of the 
personality that was. I have just told you that the ideal 
efflorescence of all the abstract, and therefore undying and 
eternal, qualities or attributes — such as love and mercy, the 
love of the good, the true, and the beautiful — which ever 
spoke in the heart of the living personality, after death cling 
to the Ego, and therefore follow it into Devachan. For 
the time being, then, the Ego becomes the ideal reflection 
of the human being it was when last on earth, and that is 
not omniscient. Were it that, it would never be in the state 
we call Devachan at all. 

Inq. — What are your reasons for it ? 

Theo. — If you want an answer on the strict lines of our 
philosophy, then I would say that it is because everything 
is " illusion " (indya) outside of eternal truth, which has 
neither form, color, nor limitation. He who has placed 
himself beyond the veil of 7nayd — and such are the highest 
Adepts and Initiates — can have no Devachan. As to the 
ordinary mortal, his bliss in Devachan is complete. It is 
an absolute oblivion of all that gave it pain or sorrow in the 
past incarnation, and even oblivion of the fact that such 
things as pain or sorrow exist at all The Devachan! lives 



132 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

its intermediate cycle between two incarnations surrounded 
by everything it had aspired to in vain, and in the com- 
panionship of every one it loved on earth. It has reached 
the fulfilment of all its soul-yearnings. And thus it lives 
throughout long centuries an existence of unalloyed happi- 
ness, which is the reward for its sufferings in earth-life. In 
short, it bathes in a sea of uninterrupted felicity spanned 
only by events of still greater felicity in degree. 

Inq. — But this is more than simple delusion; it is an exis- 
tence of insane hallucinations / 

Theo. — From your standpoint it may be ; not so from 
that of philosophy. Besides, is not our whole terrestrial life 
filled with such delusions ? Have you never met men and 
women living for years in a fools' paradise ? And because 
you should happen to learn that the husband whom a wife 
adores, and believes herself loved in turn by him, is untrue 
to her, would you go and break her heart and beautiful 
dream by rudely awakening her to the reality ? I think 
not. I say it again, such oblivion and hallucination, if 
you call it so, is only a merciful law of Nature and strict 
justice. At any rate, it is a far more fascinating prospect 
than the orthodox golden harp with a pair of wings. The 
assurance that " the soul that lives ascends frequently and 
runs familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, 
visiting the patriarchs and prophets, saluting the apostles, 
and admiring the army of martyrs," may seem of a more 
pious character to some. Nevertheless it is an hallucination 
of a far more delusive character, since mothers love their 
children with an immortal love, we all know, while the per- 
sonages mentioned in the ''heavenly Jerusalem" are still of 
a rather doubtful nature. But I would still rather accept 
the '' new Jerusalem," with its streets paved like the show- 
windows of a jeweler's shop, than find consolation in the 
heartless doctrine of the Spiritualists. The idea alone that 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 133 

the intellectual conscious souls of one's father, mother, daugh- 
ter, or brother find their bHss in a '' summer-land " — only a 
little more natural, but just as ridiculous as the ''new Jeru- 
salem " in its description — would be enough to make one 
lose every respect for one's " departed ones." To believe 
that a pure spirit can feel happy while doomed to witness 
the sins, mistakes, treachery, and, above all, the sufferings 
of those from whom it is severed by death, and whom it 
loves best, without being able to help them, would be a 
maddening thought. 

Inq. — There is something in your argument, I confess to 
having never seeii it i7i this light, 

Theo. — Just so ; and one must be selfish to the core, and 
utterly devoid of the sense of retributive justice, to have 
ever imagined such a thing. We are with those whom we 
have lost in material form, and far, far nearer to them now 
than when they were alive. And it is not only in the fancy 
of the Devachani, as some may imagine, but in reality. 
For pure divine love is not merely the blossom of a human 
heart, but has its roots in eternity. Spiritual holy love is 
immortal, and Karma sooner or later brings all those who 
loved each other with such a spiritual affection to incarnate 
once more in the same family group. Again we say that 
love beyond the grave, illusion though you may call it, 
has a magic and divine potency which reacts on the living. 
A mother's Ego filled with love for the imaginary children 
it sees near itself, living a life of happiness as real to it as 
when on earth, will ever cause that love to be felt by the 
children in flesh. It will manifest in their dreams, and 
often in various events — in '' providential " protections and 
escapes ; for love is a strong shield, and is not limited by 
space or time. As with this devachanic "mother," so with the 
rest of human relationships and attachments, save the purely 
selfish or material. Analogy will suggest to you the rest. 



134 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Inq. — In no case, the7i, do you admit the possibility of the 
comjHiuiication of the livi?ig with the disembodied spirit ? 

Theo. — Yes ; there are even two exceptions to the rule. 
The first case is during the few days that immediately fol- 
low the death of a person, and before the Ego passes into 
the devachanic state. But whether any hving mortal has 
derived much benefit from the return of the spirit into the 
objective plane is another question. Perhaps it may be so 
in a few exceptional cases, when the intensity of the desire 
in the dying person to return for some purpose forced the 
higher consciousness to remain awake, and therefore it was 
really the individuality, the '^spirit," that communicated. 
But in general the spirit is dazed after death, and falls very 
soon into what we call '' pre-devachanic unconsciousness." 
The second exception is found in the iiirmdnakdyas, 

Inq. — What of them ? What does the name signify for 
you ? 

Theo. — It is the name given to those who, though they 
have won the right to Nirvana and cyclic Rest,* yet, out 
of pity for mankind and those they have left on earth, re- 
nounce this nirvanic state. Such an Adept, or saint, or 
whatever you may call him, believing it a selfish act to rest 
in bliss while mankind groans under the burden of misery 
produced by ignorance, renounces Nirvana, and determines 
to remain invisible iii spirit on this earth. Nirmanakdyas 
have no material body, for they have left it behind ; but 
otherwise they remain with all their principles, even in astral 
life, in our sphere. And such can and do communicate with 
a few elect ones, but surely not with ordinary mediums. 

Inq. — I have put you the question about mnn.a.nsikeiya,s be- 
cause I read in some German and other works that it was the 

* Not Devachan, as the latter is an illusion of our consciousness, a happy dream, 
and as those who are fit for Nirvana must have lost entirely every desire or possibility 
of desire for the world's illusions, 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 135 

naine given in Northern Buddhistic teachings to the terrestrial 
appearafices or bodies assu7ned by Biiddhas. 

Theo. — This is so, only the OrientaHsts have confused 
this '' terrestriaP' body by understanding it to be objective 
and physical instead of purely astral and subjective. 

Inq. — And what good can these nirmanakayas do 07i earth ? 

Theo. — Not much, as regards individuals, as they have 
no right to interfere with Karma, and can only advise and 
inspire mortals for the general good. Yet they do more 
beneficent actions than you imagine. 

Inq. — To this science would never subscribe^ noteveii modern 
psychology. For science a7id psychology^ no portion of intelli- 
ge?ice can survive the physical h^aiii. What would you an- 
swer to this ? 

Theo. — I would not even go to the trouble of answering, 
but would simply say, in the words given to '' M.A. Oxon." : 

Intelligence is perpetuated after the body is dead. Though it is not 
a question of the brain only. ... It is reasonable to propound the in- 
destructibility of the human spirit from what we know. * 

Inq. — But ''M.A. Oxon.^^ is a Spiritualist? 

Theo. — -Quite so, and the only true Spiritualist I know 
of, though we may still disagree from him on many a minor 
question. Apart from this, no Spiritualist comes nearer to 
the occult truths than he does. Like any one of us, he 
speaks incessantly ''of the surface dangers that beset the 
ill-equipped, feather-headed muddler with the occult, who 
crosses the threshold without counting the cost.^t Our 
only disagreement rests in the question of '' spirit identity." 
Otherwise I, for one, almost entirely agree with him, and 
accept the three propositions he embodied in his address 

* spirit Identity, p. 69. 

t ** Some things that I do know of Spiritualism, and some that I do not.** 



136 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

of July, 1884. It is this eminent Spiritualist, rather, who 
disagrees from us, not we from him. 

Inq. — What were these propositions ? 

Theo. — They are as follows : 

1. That there is a life coincident with, and independent of, the 
physical life of the body. 

2. That, as a necessary corollary, this life extends beyond the 
life of the body. [We say it extends throughout Devachan.] 

3. That there is communication between the denizens of that 
state of existence and those of the world in which we now live. 

All depends, you see, on the minor and secondary aspects 
of these fundamental propositions. Everything depends on 
the views we take of spirit and soul, or individuality and 
personality. Spiritualists confuse the two '' into one " ; we 
separate them, and say that, with the exceptions above 
enumerated, no spirit will revisit the earth, though the ani- 
mal soul may. But let us return once more to our direct 
subject, the skandhas. 

Inq. — I begi?t to understand better now. It is the spirit^ so 
to say^ of those skandhas that are the most ennobling^ which ^ at- 
taching itself to the incarnatijig Ego^ survives^ and is added to 
the stock of its angelic experiences. And it is the attributes 
con7iected with the material ska,udh.RS, with selfish and personal 
motives^ which ^ disappearing from the field of action betwee7i 
two incarnations^ reappear at the subsequent i?icarnation as 
karmic results to be ato7ied for; and therefore the spirit will 
7iot leave Devacha7i. Is it so ? 

Theo. — Very nearly so. If you add to this that the law 
of retribution, or Karma, rewarding the highest and most 
spiritual attributes in Devachan, never fails to reward them 
again on earth by giving them a further development, and 
by furnishing the Ego with a body fitted for it, then you 
will be quite correct. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 137 

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SKANDHAS. 

Inq. — What becomes of the other ^ the lower skandhas of 
the personality^ after the death of the body ? Are they quite 
destroyed ? 

Theo. — They are and yet they are not — a fresh meta- 
physical and occult mystery for you. They are destroyed 
as the working stock in hand of the personality ; they re- 
main as karmic effects^ as germs, hanging in the atmosphere 
of the terrestrial plane, ready to come to life, as so many 
avenging fiends, to attach themselves to the new personal- 
ity of the Ego when it reincarnates. 

Inq. — This really passes my comprehension^ and is very 
difficult to tmderstand. 

Theo. — Not once that you have assimilated all the de- 
tails. For then you will see that for logic, consistency, pro- 
found philosophy, divine mercy, and equity, this doctrine 
of reincarnation has not its equal on earth. It is a belief 
in a perpetual progress for each incarnating Ego, or divine 
soul, in an evolution from the outward into the inward, from 
the material to the spiritual, arriving at the end of each 
stage at absolute unity with the Divine Principle. From 
strength to strength, from the beauty and perfection of one 
plane to the greater beauty and perfection of another, with 
accessions of new glory, of fresh knowledge and power, in 
each cycle — such is the destiny of every Ego, which thus 
becomes its own savior in each world and incarnation. 

Inq. — But Christianity teaches the same. It also preaches 
progression. 

Theo. — Yes, only with the addition of something else. 
It tells us of the impossibility of attaining salvation without 
the aid of a miraculous savior, and, moreover, dooms to per- 
dition all those who will not accept the dogma. This is just 



138 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

the difference between Christian theology and Theosophy. 
The former enforces belief in the descent of the spiritual 
Ego into the lower self; the latter inculcates the necessity 
of endeavoring to elevate one's self to the Christos or 
Buddhi state. 

Inq. — By teaching the aiinihilatioii of consciousness in case 
of failure^ however^ do you ?iot think that this amounts to the 
annihilation ^self, iii the opinion of the 7ion-metaphysical ? 

Theo. — From the standpoint of those who believe in 
the resurrection of the body literally, and insist that every 
bone, every artery and atom of flesh will be raised bodily 
on the judgment-day, of course it does. If you still insist 
that it is the perishable form and finite qualities that make 
up immortal man, then we shall hardly understand each 
other. And if you do not understand that, by limiting the 
existence of every Ego to one life on earth, you make of 
Deity an ever-drunken Indra of the Pauranic dead letter, 
a cruel Moloch, a god who makes an inextricable mess on 
earth, and yet claims thanks for it, then the sooner we drop 
the conversation the better. 

Inq. — But let us return^ now that the subject of the skand- 
has is disposed of to the questiofi of the consciousness which 
survives death. This is the point which interests most people. 
Do we possess more knowledge in Devachan than we do in 
earth-life ? 

Theo. — In one sense we can acquire more knowledge — 
that is, we can develop further any faculty which we loved 
and strove after during life, provided it is concerned with 
abstract and ideal things, such as music, painting, poetry, 
etc., since Devachan is merely an idealized and subjective 
continuation of earth-Hfe. 

Inq. — But if in Devachan the spirit is free from matter^ 
why should it not possess all knowledge ? 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 139 

Theo. — Because, as I told you, the Ego is, so to say, 
wedded to the memory of its last incarnation. Thus, if 
you think over what I have said, and string all the facts 
together, you will realize that the devachanic state is not 
one of omniscience, but a transcendental continuation of 
the personal life just terminated. It is the rest of the soul 
from the toils of life. 

Inq. — Bui the scie7itific materialists assert that after the 
death of i7ian nothing remains ; that the human body simply 
disiiite grates into its compo7ie7it ele77te7its; a7id that what we 
call soul is 77ierely a te7nporary self-co7iscious7iess p7^oduced as 
a byproduct of or ga7iic action^ which will evaporate like steam. 
Is 7iot theirs a stra7ige state of 77ii7id ? 

Theo. — Not at all strange, as far as I see. If they say 
that self-consciousness ceases with the body, then in their 
case they simply utter an unconscious prophecy ; for once 
they are firmly convinced of what they assert, no conscious 
after-life is possible for them. For there are exceptions to 
every rule. 

ON POST-MORTEM AND POSTNATAL CONSCIOUS- 
NESS.* 

Inq. — But if hu77ian self conscious 7iess survives death as a 
rule^ why should there be exceptio7is ? 

Theo. — In the fundamental principles of the spiritual 
world no exception is possible. But there are rules for those 
who see, and rules for those who prefer to remain blind. 

Inq. — Quite so, I understand. This is but a7t aberration 
of the blind 77ian, who denies the existence of the sun because 

* A few portions of this chapter and of the preceding were published in Lucifer in 
the shape of a "Dialogue on the Mysteries of the After-life," in the January num- 
ber, 1889. The article was unsigned, as if it were written by the editor, but it came 
from the pen of the author of the present volume. 



140 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

he does 7iot see it. But after death his spiritual eyes will cer- 
tainly compel him to see. Is this what you mean ? 

Theo. — He will not be compelled, nor will he see any- 
thing. Having persistently during life denied the continu- 
ance of existence after death, he will be unable to see it, 
because his spiritual capacity, having been stunted in life, 
cannot develop after death, and he will remain Wind. By 
insisting that he nmst see it, you evidently mean one thing 
and I another. You speak of the spirit from the Spirit, 
or the flame from the Flame — of Atma, in short — and you 
confuse it with the human soul, Manas. . . . You do not 
understand me ; let me try to make it clear. The whole 
gist of your question is to know whether, in the case of a 
downright materialist, the complete loss of self-conscious- 
ness and self-perception after death is possible. Is it not 
so? I answer, it is possible. Believing firmly in our Eso- 
teric Doctrine — which refers to the post-mortem period, or 
the interval between two lives or births, as merely a transi- 
tory state — I say that whether that post-mortem interval 
between two acts of the illusionary drama of life lasts one 
year or a million, it may, without any breach of the funda- 
mental law, prove to be just the same state as that of a 
man in a dead faint. 

Inq. — But since you have just said that the fundamental 
law of the after-death state admits of 7io exceptions^ how can 
this be ? 

Theo. — Nor do I say now that it does admit of an ex- 
ception. But the spiritual law of continuity applies only 
to things which are truly real. To one who has read and 
understood Mundaka Upanishad and Veddnta Sara all this 
becomes very clear. I will say more : it is sufficient only 
to understand what we mean by Buddhi and the duality of 
Manas to gain a clear perception why the materialist may 
fail to have a self-conscious sur^aval after death. Since 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 141 

Manas, in its lower aspect, is the seat of the terrestrial 
mind, it can therefore gv^^ only that perception of the uni- 
verse which is based on the evidence of that mind ; it can- 
not give spiritual vision. It is said in the Eastern school 
that between Buddhi and Manas, the Ego, or Ishvara and 
Prajfia,* there is in reality no more difference than between 
a forest and its trees, a lake and its waters, as the Mundaka 
teaches. One or a hundred trees dead from loss of vitality, 
or uprooted, are yet incapable of preventing the forest from 
being still a forest. 

Inq. — But^ as I U7iderstand it, Buddhi represe7its in this 
simile the forest, and Majias-Taijasa\ the trees. And if 
Buddhi is im??iortal, how ca7i that which is similar to it — />., 
Manas 'Taifasa — etitirely lose its consciousness till the day of 
its 7iew i7icar7iatio7i ? I ca7i7iot understa7id it. 

Theo. — You cannot because you will mix up an abstract 
representation of the whole with its casual changes of form. 
Remember that if it can be said of Buddhi-Manas that it 
is unconditionally immortal, the same cannot be said of the 
lower Manas, still less of Taijasa, which is merely an attri- 
bute. Neither of these — neither Manas nor Taijasa — can 
exist apart from Buddhi, the divine soul, because the first 
(Manas) is, in its lower aspect, a qualificative attribute of 
the terrestrial personality, and the second (Taijasa) is iden- 
tical with the first, because it is the same Manas, only with 
the light of Buddhi reflected in it. In its turn, Buddhi 
would remain only an impersonal spirit without this element 
which it borrows from the human soul, which conditions 

* Ishvara is the collective consciousness of the manifested deity, Brahma — i.e., the 
collective consciousness of the Host of Dhyan Chohans of The Secret Doctrine; and 
Prajiia is their individual wisdom. 

t Taijasa means the radiant in consequence of its union with Buddhi — i.e., Manas, 
the human soul, illuminated by the radiance of the divine soul. Therefore Manas- 
Taijasa may be described as radiant mind, the human reason lit by the light of the 
spirit ; and Buddhi-Manas is the revelation of the divine plus human intellect and self- 
consciousness. 



142 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

and makes of it, in this illusive universe, as it were something 
separate from the universal soul for the whole period of the 
cycle of incarnation. Say, rather, that Buddhi- Manas can 
neither die nor lose its united self-consciousness in eternity, 
nor the recollection of the previous incarnations in which 
the two — i.e., the spiritual and the human soul — had been 
closely linked together. But it is not so in the case of a 
materiahst, whose human soul not only receives nothing 
from the divine soul, but even refuses to recognize its exis- 
tence. You can hardly apply this axiom to the attributes 
and quahfications of the human soul, for it would be like 
saying that because your divine soul is immortal therefore 
the bloom on your cheek must also be immortal, where- 
as this bloom, like Taijasa, is simply a transitory phe- 
nomenon. 

Inq. — Do I understand you to say that we must not con- 
fuse in our minds the noumenon with the phenomenon, the 
cause with its effect ? 

Theo. — I do say so, and repeat that, limited to Manas 
or the human soul alone, the radiance of Taijasa itself be- 
comes a mere question of time, because both immortality 
and consciousness after death become, for the terrestrial 
personality of man, simply conditioned attributes, as they 
depend entirely on conditions and beHefs created by the 
human soul itself during the life of its body. Karma acts 
incessantly ; we reap in our after-life only the fruit of that 
which we have ourselves sown in this. 

Inq. — But if?ny Ego can, after the destruction of my body, 
become plunged in a state of e7itire unconsciousness, then where 
can be the punishme?it for the sins of my past life ? 

Theo. — Our philosophy teaches that karmic punishment 
reaches the Ego only in its next incarnation. After death 
it receives only the reward for the unmerited sufferings 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 143 

endured during its past incarnation.* The whole punish- 
ment after death, even for the materiaUst, consists, there- 
fore, in the absence of any reward, and the utter loss of the 
consciousness of one's bliss and rest. Karma is the child 
of the terrestrial Ego, the fruit of the actions of the tree 
which is the objective personality visible to all, as much as 
the fruit of all the thoughts and even motives of the spirit- 
ual '' I " ; but Karma is also the tender mother who heals 
the wounds inflicted by her during the preceding life before 
she begins to torture the Ego by inflicting new wounds. If 
it may be said that there is not a mental or physical suffer- 
ing in the life of a mortal which is not the direct fruit and 
consequence of some sin in a preceding existence, on the 
other hand, since the man does not preserve the shghtest 
recollection of it in his actual life, feels himself not deserv- 
ing of such punishment, and therefore thinks he suffers for 
no guilt of his own, he is thus sufficiently entitled to the 
fullest consolation, rest, and bliss in his post-mortem exis- 
tence. Death ever comes to our spiritual selves as a de- 
liverer and friend. For the materialist who, notwithstand- 
ing his materiahsm, was not a bad man, the interval between 
the two lives will be like the unbroken and placid sleep of 
a child — either entirely dreamless, or filled with pictures of 
which he will have no definite perception ; while for the 
average mortal it will be a dream as vivid as life, and full 
of realistic bliss and visions. 

Inq. — The7i the personal man must always go on suffering 
blindly the karmic pefialties which the Ego has i7icurred? 



* Some Theosophists have taken exception to this phrase, but the words are those 
of Master, and the meaning attached to the word ** unmerited" is that given above. 
In the Theosophical Si/tings, vol. i.. No. 6, a phrase, criticized subsequently in Lu- 
cifer^ was used which was intended to convey the same idea. In form, however, it 
was awkward and open to the criticism directed against it ; but the essential idea was 
that men often suffer from the effects of the actions done by others, effects which thus 
do not strictly belong to their own Karma ; and for these sufferings they of course 
deserve compensation. 



144 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Theo. — Not quite so. At the solemn moment of death 
every man, even when death is sudden, sees the whole of 
his past life marshaled before him in its minutest details. 
For one short instant the personal becomes one with the 
individual and all-knowing Ego. But this instant is enough 
to show him the whole chain of causes which have been at 
work during his life. He sees and now understands him- 
self as he is, unadorned by flattery or self-deception. He 
reads his life, remaining as a spectator looking down into 
the arena he is quitting ; he feels and knows the justice of 
all the suffering that has overtaken him. 

Inq. — Does this happen to every one ? 

Theo. — Without any exception. Very good and holy 
men see, we are taught, not only the life they are leaving, 
but even several preceding lives in which were produced 
the causes that made them what they were in the hfe just 
closing. They recognize the law of Karma in all its majesty 
and justice. 

Inq. — Is there anything corresponding to this before re- 
birth ? 

Theo. — There is. As the man at the moment of death 
has a retrospective insight into the life he has led, so, at the 
moment he is reborn onto earth, the Ego, awaking from 
the state of Devachan, has a prospective vision of the hfe 
which awaits him, and realizes all the causes that have led 
to it. He reahzes them, and sees futurity, because it is be- 
tween Devachan and rebirth that the Ego regains his full 
manasic consciousness, and rebecomes for a short time the 
god he was, before, in compliance with karmic law, he first 
descended into matter and incarnated in the first man of 
flesh. The ''golden thread'* sees all its ''pearls" and 
misses not one of them. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 145 

WHAT IS REALLY MEANT BY ANNIHILATION. 

Inq. — I have heard some Theosophists speak of a golden 
thread on which their lives were strung. What do they fnean 
by this ? 

Theo. — In the Hindu sacred books it is said that that 
which undergoes periodical incarnation is the sutrdt?nd, 
which means hterally the *' thread soul." It is a synonym 
of the reincarnating Ego — Manas conjoined with Buddhi 
— which absorbs the manasic recollections of all our pre- 
ceding lives. It is so called because, like the pearls on a 
thread, so is the long series of human lives strung together 
on that one thread. In one of the Upanishads these re- 
current rebirths are likened to the life of a mortal which 
oscillates periodically between sleep and waking. 

Inq. — This, I must say, does not seem very clear, and I 
will tell you why. For the ma7i who awakes, another day 
C07n77ie7ices, but he is the same in soul and body as he was the 
day before ; whereas at every i7icarnation a full change takes 
place not only of the external envelope, sex, and personality, 
but even of the 7Jiental a7id psychic capacities. The si7nile does 
not seem to 77ie quite correct. The 77ia7i who arises f 7^0 m sleep 
re7ne77ibers quite clearly what he has do7ie yesterday, the day 
before, and eve7i mo7iths a7id years ago. But 7io7ie of us has 
the slightest recollectio7i of a precedi7ig life or of any fact or 
event C07icer7ii7ig it. 1 7nay forget i7i the morning what I have 
drea7ned duri7ig the 7iight; still I know that I have slept, and 
have the certainty that I lived during sleep ; but what recollec- 
tio7i can I have of my past incarnation until the 7nor7ie7it of 
death ? How do you reco7icile this ? 

Theo. — Some people do recollect their past incarnations 
during life ; but these are Buddhas and Initiates. This is 
what the Yogis call samma sambuddha, or the knowledge of 
the whole series of one's past incarnations. 



146 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Inq. — But we ordinary mortals who have not reached 
samma sambuddha, how are we to understand this simile ? 

Theo. — By studying it and trying to understand more 
correctly the three kinds and characteristics of sleep. 
Sleep is a general and immutable law for man as for beast, 
but there are different kinds of sleep and still more differ- 
ent dreams and visions. 

Inq. — But this takes us to another subject. Let us return 
to the materialist who, though ?iot denying dreams — -for he 
could hardly do so — yet de7iies immortality in general and the 
survival of his own individuality. 

Theo. — And the materialist, without knowing it, is right. 
In one who has no inner perception of and faith in the im- 
mortality of his soul, that soul can never become Buddhi- 
Taijasa, but will remain simply Manas, and for Manas 
alone there is no immortality possible. In order to live a 
conscious life in the world to come, one has first of all to 
believe in that life during terrestrial existence. On these 
two aphorisms of the Secret Science all the philosophy as 
to post-mortem consciousness and the immortality of the 
soul is built. The Ego receives always according to its 
deserts. After the dissolution of the body there com- 
mences for it a period of full awakened consciousness, or 
a state of chaotic dreams, or an utterly dreamless sleep un- 
distinguishable from annihilation ; and these are the three 
kinds of sleep. If our physiologists find the cause of dreams 
and visions in an unconscious preparation for them during 
the waking hours, why cannot the same be admitted for the 
post-mortem dreams ? I repeat it : death is sleep. After 
death, before the spiritual eyes of the soul, begins a per- 
formance according to a program learned and very often 
unconsciously composed by ourselves : the practical carry- 
ing out of correct beliefs or of illusions which have been 
created by ourselves. The Methodist will be a Methodist, 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 147 

the Mussulman a Mussulman, at least for some time, in a 
perfect fools* paradise of each man's creation and making. 
These are the post-mortem fruits of the tree of life. Natu- 
rally our belief or unbelief in the fact of conscious immor- 
tality is unable to influence the unconditioned reality of the 
fact itself, once that it exists ; but the belief or unbelief in 
that immortality as the property of independent or sepa- 
rate entities cannot fail to give color to that fact in its ap- 
plication to each of these entities. Now do you begin to 
understand it ? 

Inq. — I think I do. The materialists^ disbelieving in every- 
thing that cannot be proven to them by their Jive senses^ or by 
scientific reasoning based exclusively on the data furnished by 
these senses^ i7i spite of their inadequacy^ and rejecting every 
spiritual manifestation^ accept life as the only conscious exis- 
tence. Therefore accordi?tg to their beliefs so will it be unto 
them. Tliey will lose their perso7ial Ego^ and will plunge 
into a dreamless sleep imtil a 7iew awakeni?ig. Is it so ? 

Theo. — Almost so. Remember the practically universal 
teaching of the two kinds of conscious existence — the ter- 
restrial and the spiritual. The latter must be considered 
real from the very fact that it is inhabited by the eternal, 
changeless, and immortal Monad ; whereas the incarnating 
Ego dresses itself up in new garments which are entirely dif- 
ferent from those of its previous incarnations, and in which 
all except its spiritual prototype is doomed to a change so 
radical as to leave no trace behind. 

Inq. — How so? Can my co?tscious terrestrial ^' I^' per- 
ish not 07ily for a time^ like the consciousness of the materialist^ 
but so entirely as to leave no trace behind ? 

Theo. — According to the teaching, it must so perish and 
in its entirety, all except the principle which, by uniting 
itself with the Monad, thereby becomes a purely spiritual 
and indestructible essence, one with it in the eternity. 



148 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

But in the case of an out-and-out materialist, in whose 
personal *' I " no Buddhi has ever reflected itself, how can 
that Buddhi carry away into the eternity one particle of 
that terrestrial personality ? Your spiritual " I " is immor- 
tal ; but from your present self it can carry away into eter- 
nity only that which has become worthy of immortality — 
namely, the simple aroma of the flower that has been mown 
down by death. 

Inq. — Well^ and the flower^ the terrestrial "/" ? 

Theo. — The flower, as all past and future flowers which 
have blossomed and will have to blossom on the mother- 
bough — the sutrdtmd, all children of one root or Buddhi 
— will return to dust. Your present *' I," as you yourself 
know, is not the body now sitting before me, nor yet is it 
what I would call Manas-Sutratma, but Sutratma- Buddhi. 

Inq. — But this does not explaift to me at all why you call 
life after death immortal^ infinite^ and real^ and the tei^restrial 
life a simple phantom or illusion; since even that post-mortem 
life has limits ^ however much wider they may be than those of 
terrestrial life, 

Theo. — No doubt. The spiritual Ego of man moves 
in eternity like a pendulum between the hours of birth and 
death. But if these hours, marking the periods of life ter- 
restrial and life spiritual, are limited in their duration, and 
if even the very number of such stages in eternity between 
sleep and awakening, illusion and reality, is also limited, 
on the other hand the spiritual pilgrim is eternal. And so 
the only reality in our conception is the hours of man's 
post-mortem life, when, disembodied — during the period of 
that pilgrimage which we call '' the cycle of rebirths '* — 
he stands face to face with truth, and not the mirages of 
his transitory earthly existences. Such intervals, however, 
their limitation notwithstanding, do not prevent the Ego, 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 149 

while ever perfecting itself, from following undeviatingly, 
though gradually and slowly, the path to its last transfor- 
mation, when, having reached its goal, it becomes a divine 
being. These inter\'als and stages help toward this final 
result instead of hindering it ; and without such hmited in- 
tervals the divine Ego could never reach its ultimate goal. 
I have given you once already a famihar illustration by 
comparing the Ego, or the individuality, to an actor, and 
its numerous and various incarnations to the parts it plays. 
Will you call these parts or their costumes the individuality 
of the actor himself ? Like that actor, the Ego is forced, 
during the cycle of necessity, which continues up to the 
very threshold of pa7'anirvd7ia^ to play many parts which 
may be unpleasant to it. But as the bee collects its honey 
from every flower, leaving the rest as food for the earthly 
worms, so does our spiritual individuality, whether we call 
it sutrdtnid or Ego. Collecting from every terrestrial per- 
sonality into which Karma forces it to incarnate the nec- 
tar alone of the spiritual qualities and self-consciousness, it 
unites all these into one whole, and emerges from its chrys- 
alis as the glorified Dhyan Chohan. So much the worse 
for those terrestrial personalities from which it could collect 
nothing. Such personalities assuredly cannot consciously 
outlive their terrestrial existence. 

Inq. — Thiis^ the7i, it seei?is that, for the terrestrial per so7i- 
ality, immortality is still conditional. Is, the?i, i^mnortality 
itself not u7iconditional ? 

Theo. — Not at all. But immortality cannot touch the 
non-existent ; for all that which exists as sat, or emanates 
from sat, immortality and eternity are absolute. Matter is 
the opposite pole of spirit, and yet the two are one. The 
essence of all this — ^i.e., spirit, force, and matter, or the 
three in one — is as endless as it is beginningless ; but the 
form acquired by this triple unity during its incarnations, 



150 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

its externality, is certainly only the illusion of our personal 
conceptions. Therefore do we call Nirvana and the uni- 
versal life alone a reahty, relegating the terrestrial life, its 
terrestrial personality included, and even its devachanic 
existence, to the phantom realm of illusion. 

Inq. — But why in such a case call sleep the reality^ and 
waking the illusion ? 

Theo. — It is simply a comparison made to facilitate the 
grasping of the subject, and from the standpoint of terres- 
trial conceptions it is a very correct one. 

Inq. — And still I cannot understand^ if the life to come is 
based o?z justice and ??ierited retribution for all our terrestrial 
sufferiiig^ how in the case of materialists^ many of whom are 
really honest and charitable men^ there should remain of their 
personality nothing but the refuse of a faded flower, 

Theo. — Such a thing was never stated. No materialist, 
however unbelieving, can die forever in the fullness of his 
spiritual individuality. What was said is that conscious- 
ness can disappear either fully or partially in the case of a 
materialist, so that no conscious remains of his personality 
survive. 

Inq. — But surely this is aiinihilation ? 

Theo. — Certainly not. One can sleep a dead sleep and 
miss several stations during a long railway journey, without 
the slightest recollection or consciousness, and awake at 
another station and continue the journey past innumerable 
other halting-places till the end of the journey or the goal 
is reached. Three kinds of sleep were mentioned to you — 
the dreamless, the chaotic, and the one which is so real that 
dreams become full reahties to the sleeper. If you believe 
in the latter, why can you not believe in the former ? 
According to the after-hfe a man has beheved in and ex- 
pected, such is the life he will have. He who expected no 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 151 

life to come will have an absolute blank, amounting to an- 
nihilation, in the interval between the two births. This is 
just the carrying out of the program we spoke of — a pro- 
gram created by the materiahsts themselves. But there are 
various kinds of materialists, as you say. A selfish, wicked 
egoist, one who never shed a tear for any one but himself, 
thus adding entire indifference to the whole world to his 
unbelief, must, at the threshold of death, drop his person- 
ality forever. This personality having no tendrils of sym- 
pathy for the world around, and hence nothing to attach 
it to stitrdtmd, it follows that with the last breath every 
connection between the two is broken. There being no 
Devachan for such a materialist, the siltrdtmd will reincar- 
nate almost immediately. But those materialists who erred 
in nothing but their disbelief will oversleep but one station. 
And the time will come when such ex-materialists will per- 
ceive themselves in the eternity, and perhaps repent that 
they lost even one day, one station, from the life eternal. 

Inq. — Still would it not be more correct to say that death 
is birth into a new life, or a return once 7nore into eternity ? 

Theo. — You may if you like. Only remember that births 
differ, and that there are births of still-born beings, which 
are failures of natiure. Moreover, with your fixed Western 
ideas about material life, the words '' living " and '' being '^ 
are quite inapplicable to the pure subjective state of post- 
mortem existence. Save in a few philosophers who are not 
read by the many, and who themselves are too confused to 
present a distinct picture of it, your Western ideas of life 
and death have become so narrow that on the one hand 
they have led to crass materialism, and on the other to 
the still more material conception of the other life which 
the Spiritualists have formulated in their ''summer-land." 
There the souls of men eat, drink, marry, and live in a 
paradise quite as sensual as that of Mohammed, and even 



152 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

less philosophical. Nor are the average conceptions of the 
uneducated Christians any better ; if possible, they are still 
more material. What between truncated angels, brass trum- 
pets, golden harps, and material hell-fires, the Christian 
heaven seems like a fairy scene at a Christmas pantomime. 
It is because of these narrow conceptions that you find 
such difficulty in understanding. It is just because the life 
of the disembodied soul, while possessing all the vividness 
of reality, as in certain dreams, is devoid of every grossly 
objective form of terrestrial hfe that the Eastern philoso- 
phers have compared it with visions of sleep. 

DEFINITE WORDS FOR DEFINITE THINGS. 

Inq. — Do you not think that it is because there are no defi- 
nite and fixed terms to indicate each ^^ principle " i7i man, that 
such a confiision of ideas arises i7i our minds with respect to 
the respective functions of these principles ? 

Theo. — I have thought of this myself. The whole trouble 
has arisen from our having begun with Sanskrit names in 
our expositions of and discussion about the ''principles," 
instead of immediately coining, for the use of Theosophists, 
their equivalents in English. We must try and remedy this 
now. 

Inq. — You will do well, as it may avoid further confusion ; 
no two Theosophical writers, it see7?is to me, have hitherto 
agreed to call the same principle by the sa7?te na7ne, 

Theo. — The confusion is more apparent than real, how- 
ever. I have heard some of our Theosophists expressing 
surprise, and criticizing several essays speaking of these 
principles. When examined, however, there was no worse 
mistake in them than the use of the word " soul " to cover 
the three principles, without specifying the distinctions. 
The first and positively the clearest of our Theosophical 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 153 

writers, Mr. A. P. Sinnett, has some comprehensive and 
admirably written passages on the '' Higher Self." * Never- 
theless his real idea has also been misconceived by some, 
owing to his using the word '' soul " in a general sense. 
Yet here are a few passages which will show you how clear 
and comprehensive is all that he writes on the subject : 

The human soul, once launched on the streams of evolution as a 
human individuality,! passes through alternate periods of physical and 
relatively spiritual existence. It passes from the one plane or stratum 
or condition of nature* to the other under the guidance of its karmic 
affinities ; living in incarnations the life which its Karma has preor- 
dained ; modifying its progress within the limitations of circumstances ; 
and — developing fresh Karma by its use or abuse of opportunities — it 
returns to spiritual existence (Devachan) after each physical life — 
through the intervening region of Kamaloka — for rest and refresh- 
ment and for the gradual absorption into its essence, as so much cos- 
mic progress, of the life's experience gained ** on earth" or during 
physical existence. This view of the matter will, moreover, have 
suggested many collateral inferences to any one thinking over the sub- 
ject; for instance, that the transfer of consciousness from the Kama- 
loka to the devachanic stage of this progression would necessarily be 
gradual ;t that, in truth, no hard-and-fast line separates the varieties 
of spiritual conditions ; that even the spiritual and physical planes, as 
psychic faculties in living people show, are not so hopelessly walled 
off from one another as materialistic theories would suggest ; that all 
states of nature are all around us simultaneously, and appeal to differ- 
ent perceptive faculties ; and so on. ... It is clear that during physical 
existence people who possess psychic faculties remain in connection 
with the planes of superphysical consciousness ; and although most 
people may not be endowed with such faculties, we all — as the phe- 
nomena of sleep, even, and especially . . . those of somnambulism or 
mesmerism, show — are capable of entering into conditions of conscious- 

* See Transactions of the London Lodge oftJie Theosophical Society y No. 7, Octo- 
ber, 1885. 

t The reincarnating Ego, or human soul, as he called it ; the " causal body '* with 
the Vedantins. 

X The length of this " transfer" depends, however, on the degree of spirituality in 
the ex-personality of the disembodied Ego. For those whose lives were very spiritual 
this transfer, though gradual, is very rapid. The time becomes longer with the mate- 
rialistically inclined. 



154 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ness that the five physical senses have nothing to do with. We — the 
souls within us — are not, as it were, altogether adrift in the ocean of 
matter. We clearly retain some surviving interest or rights in the 
shore from which, for a time, we have floated off. The process of in- 
carnation, therefore, is not fully described when we speak of an alter- 
nate existence on the physical and spiritual planes, and thus picture 
the soul as a complete entity slipping entirely from the one state of 
existence to the other. The more correct definitions of the process 
would probably represent incarnation as taking place on this physical 
plane of nature by reason of an efflux emanating from the soul. The 
spiritual realm would all the while be the proper habitat of the soul, 
which would never entirely quit it ; and that non-mate7'ializable portion 
of the soul which abides permanently on the spiritual plane may fitly, 
perhaps, be spoken of as the Higher Self. 

This ''Higher Self ^' is Atma, and of course it is "non- 
materiaHzable," as Mr. Sinnett says. Even more, it can 
never be objective under any circumstances, even to the 
highest spiritual perception. For Atman, or the '' Higher 
Self," is really Brahma, the Absolute, and indistinguishable 
from it. In hoiu'S of sa77iddhi the higher spiritual conscious- 
ness of the Initiate is entirely absorbed in the One Essence, 
which is Atman, and therefore, being one with the whole, 
there can be nothing objective for it. Now some of our 
Theosophists have got into the habit of using the words 
'' Self " and " Ego " as synonymous ; of associating the 
term '' Self " with only man's higher individual or even 
personal '' Self '' or Ego, whereas this term ought never to 
be applied except to the 07ie Universal Self. Hence the 
confusion. When speaking of Manas, the '' causal body," 
and connecting it with the Buddhic radiance, we may call 
it the '' Higher Ego," never the '' Higher Self." For even 
Buddhi, the spiritual soul, is not the Self but the vehicle 
only of Self. All the other selves — such as the individual 
self and personal self — ought never to be spoken or written 
of without their qualifying and characteristic adjectives. 

Thus in the above most excellent essay on the " Higher 
Self " the term is apphed to the sixth principle or Buddhi 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 155 

— of course in conjunction with Manas, as without such 
union there would be no thinking principle or element in 
the spiritual soul — and has in consequence given rise to 
just such misunderstandings. The statement that ''a child 
does not acquire its sixth principle — or become a morally 
responsible being capable of generating Karma — until seven 
years old " proves what is meant therein by the term 
" Higher Self." Therefore the able author is quite justi- 
fied in explaining that, after the ''Higher Self" has passed 
into the human being and saturated the personality — in 
some of the finer organizations only — with its conscious- 
ness, "people with psychic faculties may indeed perceive 
this Higher Self through their finer senses from time to 
time." But so also are those who limit the term '' Higher 
Self " to the Universal Divine Principle '' justified " in mis- 
understanding him. For when, without being prepared 
for this shifting of metaphysical terms,* we read that while 
" fully manifesting on the physical plane . . . the Higher 
Self still remains a conscious spiritual Ego on the corre- 
sponding plane of nature," we are apt to see in the 
" Higher Self " of this sentence Atma, and in the spiritual 
Ego Manas, or rather Buddhi-Manas, and forthwith to 
criticize the whole thing as incorrect. 

To avoid henceforth such misapprehensions, I propose 
to translate the occult Eastern terms into their English 
equivalents, and offer these for future use. 

' Atma, the inseparable ray of the Uni- 
versal and One Self. It is the God 
above, more than within, us. Happy 
the man who succeeds in saturating 
his Inner Ego with it ! 

* ** Shifting of metaphysical terms" applies here only to the shifting of their trans- 
lated equivalents from the Eastern expressions ; for to this day there have never ex- 
isted any such terms in English, every Theosophist having to coin his own terms to 
render his thought. It is high time, then, to settle on some definite nomenclature. 



The Higher Self is < 



156 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 



The Spiritual 
Divine Ego is 



The Liner or 
Higher Ego is 



The Lower or Per- 
so?ial Ego is 



{the spiritual soul or Buddhi, in close 
union with Manas, the mind-principle, 
without which the former is no Ego at 
all, but only the Atmic Vehicle. 

C Manas, the ''fifth " principle, so called, 
independently of Buddhi. The mind- 
principle is only the Spiritual Ego 
when merged into one with Buddhi ; 
no materialist being supposed to have 
in him such an Ego, however great his 
intellectual capacities. It is the per- 
manent individuality or the reincarnat- 

^ing Ego. 
the physical man in conjunction with 
his lower self — i.e., animal instincts, 
passions, desires, etc. It is called the 
false perso7iality ^ and consists of the 
lower Manas combined with Kama 
Rupa, and operating through the phys- 
ical body and its phantom or double. 



The remaining principle, Prana, or life, is, strictly speaking, 
the radiating force or energy of Atma — as the Universal 
Life and the One Self — its lower, or rather (in its effects) 
more physical (because manifesting), aspect. Prana, or life, 
permeates the whole being of the objective universe, and is 
called a principle only because it is an indispensable factor 
and the deus ex mac hind of the living man. 

INQ.—This division will answer better^ I believe^ as it is so 
much simplified iii its combinations. The other is much too 
metaphysical. 

Theo. — If outsiders as well as Theosophists would agree 
to it, it would certainly make matters much more compre- 
hensible. 



X. 

ON THE NATURE OF OUR THINKING PRINCIPLE. 



THE MYSTERY OF THE EGO, 

Inq. — In the quotation you brought forward a little while 
agofrofu the Buddhist Catechism I perceive a discrepancy which 
I should like to hear explained. It is there stated that the 
skandhas — memory included — change with every new incar- 
nation. And yet it is asserted that the reflection of the past 
lives, which, we are told, are entirely made up of skandhas, 
*^ must survive, ^^ At the present mome7it I am not quite clear 
in my mind as to what it is precisely that survives, a?id I should 
like to have it explained. What is it ? Is it only that '' re- 
flection^'* or those skandhas, or always that same Ego, the 
Manas ? 

Theo. — I have just explained that the reincarnating prin- 
ciple, or that which we call the divine man, is indestruc- 
tible throughout the hfe-cycle — indestructible as a thinking 
entity, and even as an ethereal form. The ** reflection" is 
only the spiritualized reinembrafice , during the devachanic 
period, of the ex-personality — Mr. A or Mrs. B — with which 
the Ego identifies itself during that period. Since the de- 
vachanic period is but the continuation of the earth-life, so 
to say — the very acme and pith, in an unbroken series, of 

157 



158 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

the few happy moments in that now past existence — the 
Ego has to identify itself with the personal consciousness 
of that earth-life if anything shall remain of it. 

Inq. — This means that the Ego^ 7iotwithsta7iding its divine 
nature^ passes every such period betweefi two incarnations i?i 
a state of mejital obscicration or temporary insanity ? 

Theo. — You may regard it as you like. Believing that, 
outside the One Reality, nothing is more than a passing 
illusion — the whole universe included — we do not view it 
as insanity, but as a very natural sequence or development 
of the terrestrial life. What is life ? A bundle of the most 
varied experiences, of daily changing ideas, emotions, and 
opinions. In our youth we are often enthusiastically de- 
voted to an ideal, to some hero or heroine whom we try 
to follow and revive ; a few years later, when the freshness 
of our youthful feelings has faded out and sobered down, 
we are the first to laugh at our fancies. And yet there was 
a day when we had so thoroughly identified our own per- 
sonality with that of the ideal in our mind — especially if it 
was that of a living being — that it became entirely merged 
and lost in our ideal. Can it be said of a man of fifty that 
he is the same being that he was at twenty ? The inner 
man is the same ; the outward living personality is com- 
pletely transformed and changed. Would you also call 
these changes in the human mental states insanity ? 

Inq. — How would you name them, and especially how 
would you explai?i the permanence of o?ie and the evanescence 
of the other ? 

Theo. — We have our own doctrine ready, and to us it 
offers no difficulty. The clue lies in the double conscious- 
ness of our mind, and also in the dual nature of the mental 
principle. There is a spiritual consciousness — the manasic 
mind illumined by the light of Buddhi — which subjectively 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 159 

perceives abstractions, and a sentient conscionsness — the 
lower manasic light — inseparable from our physical brain 
and senses. The latter consciousness is held in subjection 
by the brain and physical senses, and, being in its turn 
equally dependent on them, must of course fade out and 
finally die with the disappearance of the brain and physical 
senses. It is only the spiritual consciousness, whose root 
lies in eternity, which survives and hves forever, and may 
therefore be regarded as immortal. Everything else be- 
longs to passing illusions. 

Inq. — What do you really understand by illusion i?i this 
case ? 

Theo. — It is very well described in the above-mentioned 
essay on the *' Higher Self,'* in which the author says : 

The theory we are considering (the interchange of ideas between the 
Higher Ego and the lower self) harmonizes very well with the treat- 
ment of this world in which we live as a phenomenal world of illusion, 
the spiritual planes of Nature being, on the other hand, the noumenal 
world or plane of reality. That region of Nature in which, so to speak, 
the permanent soul is rooted is more real than that in which its tran- 
sitory blossoms appear for a brief space to wither and fall to pieces, 
while the plant recovers energy for sending forth a fresh flower. Sup- 
posing flowers only were perceptible to ordinary senses, and their roots 
existed in a state of Nature intangible and invisible to us, philosophers 
in such a world who divined that there were such things as roots in 
another plane of existence would be apt to say of the flowers, *' These 
are not the real plants ; they are of no relative importance, merely illu- 
sive phenomena of the moment." 

This is what I mean. It is not the world in which blos- 
som the transitory and evanescent flowers of personal lives 
which is the real permanent world, but that one in which 
we find the root of consciousness, the root which is beyond 
illusion and dwells in the eternity. 

Inq. — What do you mean by the root dwelling in eter- 
nity ? 



160 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Theo. — I mean by this root the thinking entity, the Ego 
which incarnates, whether we regard it as an angel, a spirit, 
or a force. Of that which falls under our sensuous per- 
ceptions only what grows directly from, or is attached to, 
this invisible root above can partake of its immortal life. 
Hence every noble thought, idea, and aspiration of the per- 
sonahty it informs, proceeding from and fed by this root, 
must become permanent. As to the physical conscious- 
ness, as it is a quahty of the sentient but lower ''principle" 
— Kama Rupa, or animal instinct, illuminated by the lower 
manasic reflection, or the human soul — it must disappear. 
It is the higher consciousness which displays activity while 
the body is asleep or paralyzed, our memory registering 
but feebly and inaccurately — because automatically — such 
experiences, and often failing to be even slightly impressed 
by them. 

Inq. — But how is it that Manas, although you call it nous, 
a ''God,''^ is so weak during its incarnations as to be actually 
co7iquered and fettered by its body ? 

Theo. — I might retort with a similar question, and ask, 
How is it that he whom you regard as '' God of gods " 
and the One Living God is so weak as to allow evil (or 
the devil) to have the best of him as much as of all his 
creatures, both while in heaven, and also during the time 
he was incarnated on this earth ? You are sure to reply 
again. This is a mystery, and we are forbidden to pry into 
the mysteries of God. But as we are not forbidden to do 
so by our rehgious philosophy, I answer that, unless a God 
descends as an avatdra, no divine principle can be other- 
wise than cramped and paralyzed by turbulent animal mat- 
ter. Heterogeneity will always have the upper hand over 
homogeneity on this plane of illusions ; and the nearer an 
essence is to its root-principle, primordial homogeneity, the 
more difficult it is for the latter to assert itself on earth. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 161 

Spiritual and divine powers lie dormant in every human 
being ; and the wider the sweep of his spiritual vision the 
mightier will be the God within him. But few men can 
feel that God. As an average rule, deity is always bound 
and limited in our thought by earlier conceptions, ideas in- 
culcated in us from childhood ; therefore it is so difficult 
for you to understand our philosophy. 

Inq. — A7td is it this Ego of ours which is our God? 

Theo. — Not at all ; ''a God " is not the Universal Deity, 
but only a spark from the one ocean of Divine Fire. Our 
God within us, or '^ our Father in secret," is what we call 
the Higher Self, Atma. Our incarnating Ego was a God 
in its origin, as were all the primeval emanations of the One 
Unknown Principle. But since its '^fall into matter," hav- 
ing to incarnate throughout the cycle, in succession, from 
first to last, it is no longer a free and happy God, but a 
poor pilgrim on his way to regain that which he has lost. 
I can. answer you more fully by repeating what is said of 
the Inner Man in Isis Unveiled (ii., 593) : 

From the remotest antiquity mankind as a whole have always been 
convinced of the existence of a personal spiritual entity within the per- 
sonal physical man. This inner entity was more or less divine, accord- 
ing to its proximity to the crown, . . . The closer the union, the 
more serene man's destiny, the less dangerous the external conditions. 
This belief is neither bigotry nor superstition, only an ever-present, 
instinctive feeling of the proximity of another spiritual and invisible 
world, which, though it be subjective to the senses of the outward 
man, is perfectly objective to the Inner Ego. Furthermore, they be- 
lieved that there are external and internal conditiofts which affect the 
detennination of our will upon our actions. They rejected fatalism, 
for fatalism implies a blind course of some still blinder power. But 
they believed in destiny (or Karma), which from birth to death every 
man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a spider does his 
cobweb ; and this destiny is guided either by that presence termed by 
some the guardian angel, or by our more intimate astral inner man, 
who is but too often the evil genius of the man of flesh (or the per- 
sonality). Both these lead on . . . man, but one of them must pre- 



162 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

vail ; and from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and 
implacable law of compensation {and retribution) steps in and takes its 
course, following faithfully the fluctuations (of the conflict). When 
the last strand is woven, and man is seemingly inwrapped in the net- 
work of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the 
empire of this self-made destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert 
shell against the immovable rock, or like a feather carries him away 
in a whirlwind raised by his own actions. 

Such is the destiny of the ma7i — the true Ego, not the 
automaton, the shell \\\dX goes by that name. It is for this 
man to become the conqueror over matter. 



THE COMPLEX NATURE OF MANAS, 

Inq. — But you wanted to tell me something of the essential 
nature of Manas ^ and of the relation in which the skandhas 
of physical man stand to it, 

Theo. — It is this nature, mysterious, protean, beyond 
any grasp, and almost shadowy in its correlations with the 
other principles, that is so difBcult to reahze, and still more 
difficult to explain. Manas is a principle, and yet it is an 
entity and individuality, or Ego. He is a God, and yet he 
is doomed to an endless cycle of incarnations, for each of 
which he is made responsible, and for each of which he 
has to suffer. All this seems as contradictory as it is puz- 
zling ; nevertheless, there are hundreds of people, even in 
America, who realize all this perfectly, for they comprehend 
the Ego not only in its integrity, but in its many aspects. 
But if I would make myself comprehensible, I must begin 
at the beginning and give you the genealogy of this Ego 
in a few Hues. 

Inq. — Say on, 

Theo. — Try to imagine a spirit, a celestial being, whether 
we call it by one name or another, divine in its essential 
nature, yet not pure enough to be one with the All, and 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 163 

consequently having to purify its nature so that it may 
finally reach that goal. It can do so only by passing in- 
dividually diTid. personally — i.e., spiritually and physically — 
through every experience and feehng that exists in the 
manifold or differentiated universe. It has, therefore, after 
gaining experience in the lower kingdoms, and having 
ascended higher and still higher with every rung on the 
ladder of being, to pass through every experience on the 
human planes. In its very essence it is thought^ and is 
therefore called in its plurality mdnasa-putras ^ or ''sons of 
the (universal) mind." ThisindividuaHzed thought is what 
we Theosophists call the real human Ego, the thinking 
entity imprisoned in a case of flesh and bones. This is 
surely a spiritual entity, not matter, and such entities are 
the incarnating Egos, informing the bundle of animal mat- 
ter called mankind, who are called mdiiasa-ptctras ^ and are 
'* minds." But once imprisoned or incarnate, their essence 
becomes dual ; that is to say, the rays of the eternal Divine 
Mind, considered as individual entities, assume a twofold 
attribute : (a) their essential^ inherent, characteristic, heaven- 
aspiring mind or higher Manas, and {b) the human quality 
of thinking, or animal cogitation, rationalized, owing to the 
superiority of the human brain, the kama-tending or lower 
Manas. One gravitates toward Buddhi, the other tends 
downward to the seat of passions and animal desires. The 
latter have no room in Devachan, nor can they associate 
with the divine triad which ascends as one into mental 
bliss. Yet it is the Ego, the manasic entity, which is held 
responsible for all the sins of the lower attributes, just as a 
parent is answerable for the transgressions of the child so 
long as the latter remains irresponsible. 

Inq. — Is this ^' child^' the personality ? 

Theo. — It is. But when it is stated that the personal- 
ity dies with the body, that is not all. The body, which 



164 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

was only the objective symbol of Mr. A or Mrs. B, fades 
away with all the material skandhas, which are the visible 
expressions of it. But all that which during life consti- 
tuted the spiritual bundle of experiences, the noblest aspira- 
tions, undying affections, and unselfish nature of Mr. A or 
Mrs. B, clings for the time of the devachanic period to the 
Ego, and the Ego is identified with the spiritual portion of 
the terrestrial entity, which has now passed away out of 
sight. The actor is so imbued with the role he has lately 
played that he dreams of it during the whole devachanic 
night, and this visiofi continues till the hour strikes for him 
to return to the stage of life to enact another part. 

Inq. — But how is it that this doctri?ie^ which you say is as 
old as thinking me7t, has found no room, say, in Christia?t 
theology ? 

Theo. — You are mistaken — it has ; only theology has dis- 
figured it out of all recognition, as it has many other doc- 
trines. Theology calls the Ego the angel that God gives 
us, at the-' moment of our birth, to take care of our soul. 
Theological logic, instead of holding that '* angel" re- 
sponsible for the transgressions of the poor helpless '^soul,'* 
makes the latter punishable for all the sins of both flesh and 
mind ! It is the soul, the immaterial ''breath" of God 
and his alleged " creation," which, by some most amazing 
intellectual jugglery, is doomed to burn in a material hell 
without ever being consumed,* while the '' angel " escapes 
scot-free, after folding his white pinions and wetting them 
with a few tears. Aye, these are our '* ministering spirits," 
the ''messengers of mercy" who are sent. Bishop Mant 
tells us — 

... to fulfil 
Good for salvation's heirs ; for us they still 
Grieve when we sin, rejoice when we repent. 

* Being of " an asbestos-like nature," according to the eloquent and fiery expression 
of a modern English Tertullian. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 165 

Yet it becomes evident that if all the bishops the world 
over were asked to define once for all what they mean by 
soid2j\di its functions, they would be as unable to do so as 
to show us any shadow of logic in the orthodox belief ! 

THE DOCTRINE IS TAUGHT IN ST JOHN'S GOSPEL 

Inq. — To this the adherents of this belief might answer 
that, if eve7i the orthodox dog?na does promise the i^npenitent 
sinner and materialist a bad time of it in a rather too realistic 
ififerno, it gives thetn, on the other hand, a cha7ice for repen- 
tance to the last minute. Moreover, they do not teach annihi- 
lation, or loss of personality , which comes to the same thing, 

Theo. — If the church teaches nothing of the kind, on 
the other hand, Jesus does ; and that is something to those, 
at least, who place Christ higher than Christianity. 

Inq. — Does Christ teach anything of the sort ? 

Theo. — He does ; and every well-informed Occultist and 
even Kabalist will tell you so. Christ, or the Fourth Gos- 
pel at any rate, teaches reincarnation and also the annihi- 
lation of the personahty, if you will only forget the dead 
letter and hold to the esoteric spirit. Remember verses i 
and 2 in chapter xv. of St. John. What does the parable 
speak about if not of the upper triad in man ? Atma is 
the "husbandman," the spiritual Ego, or Buddhi (Christos), 
the '' vine," while the animal and vital soul, the personal- 
ity, is the ''branch." '' I am the true vine, and my Father 
is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not 
fruit he taketh away. ... As the branch cannot bear fruit 
of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except 
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. . . . 
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and 
is withered ^^ — and cast into the fire and burned. 

Now we explain it in this way : disbelieving in the hell- 



166 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

fires which theology discovers as underlying the threat to 
the '' branches," we say that the *' husbandman " means 
Atma, the symbol for the infinite, impersonal principle,* 
while the ''vine" stands for the spiritual soul, Christos, 
and each ''branch" represents a new incarnation. 

Inq. — But what proofs have you to support such an arbi- 
trary interpretatio7i ? 

Theo. — Universal symbology is a warrant for its correct- 
ness and that it is not arbitrary. Hermas says of " God " 
that he " planted the vineyard " — i.e., he created mankind. 
In the Kabalah it is shown that the Aged of the Aged, or 
the " Long Face," plants a " vineyard," typifying mankind, 
and a " vine," meaning life. The Spirit of " King Messiah " 
is therefore shown as washing his garments in the wine from 
above, from the creation of the world.t And King Mes- 
siah is the Ego purified by " washing his garments " — i.e., 
his personalities in rebirth — in the " wine from above," or 
Buddhi. Adam, or A-dam, is " blood." The life of the 
flesh is in the blood — nephesh^ soul (Lev. xvii.). And 
Adam Kadmon is the Only-Begotten. Noah also plants a 
vineyard — the allegorical hotbed of future humanity. As 
a consequence of the adoption of the same allegory, we find 
it reproduced in the Codex Nazarceus, Seven vines — our 
seven races with their seven saviors or Buddhas — are pro- 
created. These seven vines spring from Jukabar Zivo, and 
Aebel Zivo waters them.f When the blessed will ascend 
among the creatures of Light, they shall see Javar Zivo, 
Lord of Life, and the First Vine.§ These kabalistic meta- 
phors are thus naturally repeated in the Gospel according 
to St. John. 



* During the Mysteries it is the hierophant, the ** Father," who planted the 
"vine." Every symbol has seven keys to it. The discloser of the pleroma was 
always called ** Father." t Zohar, xl., lo. 

% Codex NazarceuSy Liber Adami Appellatt^ — a Matth. Norberg, iii., 60, 61. 

§ Ibid.f ii., 281. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 167 

Let us not forget that — even according to those philoso- 
phies which ignore our septenary division — in the human 
system the Ego, or thinking man^ is called the Logos, or 
the " Son " of soul and spirit. '' Manas is the adopted 
son of King and Queen " (the esoteric equiva- 
lents for Atma and Buddhi), says an occult work. He is 
the '^ man-god " of Plato, who crucifies himself in '' space," 
or the duration of the life-cycle, for the redemption of 
matter. This he does by incarnating over and over again, 
thus leading mankind onward to perfection, and making 
thereby room for lower forms to develop into higher. Not 
for even one life does he cease progressing himself and also 
helping all physical Nature to progress ; even the occasional, 
very rare event of his losing one of his personalities — in the 
case of the latter being entirely devoid of even a spark of 
spirituality — helps toward his individual progress. 

Inq. — But surely y if the Ego is held responsible for the 
transgressions of its personalities^ it has to answer also for the 
loss, or rather the complete annihilatioii^ of 07ie of such. 

Theo. — Not at all, unless it has done nothing to avert 
this dire fate. But if, notwithstanding all its efforts, its 
voice, the voice of conscience, has been unable to penetrate 
through the wall of matter, then the obtuseness of the latter, 
which proceeds from the imperfect nature of the material, 
is classed with other failures of nature. The Ego is suffi- 
ciently punished by the loss of Devachan, and especially 
by having to incarnate almost immediately. 

Inq. — This doctrine of the possibility of losi?ig 07ie's soul — 
or persofiality , do you call it ? — viilitates against the ideal 
theories of both Christians and Spiritualists, though Sweden- 
borg adopts it to a certaiji exteiit in what he calls '^ spiritual 
death, ^"^ Christians and Spiritualists will never accept it, 

Theo. — This can in no way alter a fact in Nature, if it 
be a fact, or prevent such a thing occasionally taking place. 



168 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

The universe and everything in it, moral, mental, physical, 
psychic, or spiritual, is built on a perfect law of equilibrium 
and harmony. As said before in Isis Unveiled^ the centrip- 
etal force could not manifest itself without the centrifugal 
in the harmonious revolutions of the spheres, and all forms 
and the progress of such forms are products of this dual 
force in Nature. Now the spirit, or Buddhi, is the centrif- 
ugal, and the soul, or Manas, the centripetal spiritual 
energy ; and to produce one result they have to be in per- 
fect union and harmony. Break or damage the centripetal 
motion of the earthly soul tending toward the center which 
attracts it ; arrest its progress by clogging it with a heavier 
weight of matter than it can bear, or than is fit for the 
devachanic state, and the harmony of the whole will be de- 
stroyed. Personal Kfe, or perhaps rather its ideal reflection, 
can only be continued if sustained by the twofold force ; 
that is, by the close union of Buddhi and Manas in every 
rebirth or personal Hfe. The least deviation from harmony 
damages it ; and when it is destroyed beyond redemption 
the two forces separate at the moment of death. During 
a brief interval the persoiial form — called indifferently kdma 
rupa and ?ndydvi rupa — the spiritual efflorescence of which, 
attaching itself to the Ego, follows it into Devachan and 
gives to the permanent individuality its personal coloring, 
for the time, so to speak, is carried off to remain in Kama- 
loka and to be gradually annihilated. For it is after the 
death of the utterly depraved, the unspiritual, and the 
wicked beyond redemption that the critical and supreme 
moment arrives. If during life the ultimate and desperate 
effort of the Inner Self (Manas) to unite something of the 
personality with itself and the high glimmering ray of the 
divine Buddhi is thwarted ; if this ray is allowed to be 
more and more shut out from the ever-thickening crust of 
the physical brain, the spiritual Ego or Manas, once freed 
from the body, remains severed entirely from the ethereal 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 169 

relic of the personality ; and the latter, or Kama Rupa, fol- 
lowing its earthly attractions, is drawn into and remains in 
Hades, which we call Kamaloka. These are ''the with- 
ered branches " mentioned by Jesus as being cut off from 
the ''vine." Annihilation, however, is never instantaneous, 
and may require centuries sometimes for its accomplishment. 
But there the personahty remains along with the remnants 
of other more fortunate personal Egos, and becomes with 
them a shell and an elefuentary. As said in Isis Unveiled^ 
it is these two classes of "spirits,'* the shells and the ele- 
mentaries, which are the leading " stars " on the great spirit- 
ual stage of " materializations." And, you may be sure of 
it, it is not they who incarnate ; and therefore it is that so 
few of these " dear departed ones " know anything of rein- 
carnation, and thereby mislead the Spiritualists. 

Inq. — Bui does not the author of Isis U?iveiled stand ac- 
cused of having preached against reincarnation ? 

Theo. — By those who have misunderstood what was 
said, yes. At the time that work was written reincarna- 
tion was not believed in by any Spirituahsts, either EngUsh 
or American, and what is said there of reincarnation was 
directed against the French Spiritists, whose theory is as 
unphilosophical and absurd as the Eastern teaching is log- 
ical and self-evident in its truth. The reincarnationists of 
the Allan Kardec school believe in an arbitrary and imme- 
diate reincarnation. With them, the dead father can incar- 
nate in his own unborn daughter, and so on. They have 
neither Devachan, Karma, nor any philosophical theory 
that would warrant or prove the necessity of consecu- 
tive rebirths. But how can the author of Isis Unveiled 
argue against karmic reincarnation, at long intervals vary- 
ing between one thousand and fifteen hundred years, 
when it is the fundamental belief of both Buddhists and 
Hindus ? 



170 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Inq. — Then you reject the theories of both the Spiritists and 
the Spiritualists in their entirety ? 

Theo. — Not in their entirety, but only with regard to 
their respective fundamental beliefs. Both rely on what 
their ''spirits" tell them, and both disagree as much from 
each other as we Theosophists disagree from both. Truth 
is one ; and when we hear the French spooks preaching 
reincarnation, and the English spooks denying and de- 
nouncing the doctrine, we say that either the French or 
the English *' spirits " do not know what they are talking 
about. We believe, with the Spiritualists and the Spiritists, 
in the existence of '' spirits," or invisible beings endowed 
with more or less intelhgence. But while in our teachings 
their kinds and genera are legion, our opponents admit of 
no other than human disembodied '' spirits," which, to our 
knowledge, are mostly kamalokic shells. 

Inq. — You seem very bitter against '' spirits^ As you have 
given me your views aiid your reasons for disbelieving in the 
materialization of and direct comfuunication in seances with, 
the disembodied spirits^ or the '' spirits of the dead^^ would 
you mind enlightening 7ne as to 07ie more fact ? Why are 
some Theosophists never tired of saying how dangerous is in- 
tercourse with spirits^ and mediums hip ? Have they any par- 
ticular reason for this ? 

Theo. — We must suppose so. I know /have. Owing 
to my familiarity for over half a century with these invisible 
but only too tangible and undeniable "influences," from 
the conscious elementals and semi-conscious shells down to 
the utterly senseless and nondescript spooks of all kinds, I 
claim a certain right to my views. 

Inq. — Can you give a?i instance or instances to show why 
these practices should be regarded as dangerous ? 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 171 

Theo. — This would require more time than I can give 
you. Every cause must be judged by the effects it pro- 
duces. Go over the history of Spirituahsm for the last fifty 
years, ever since its reappearance in this century in Amer- 
ica, and judge for yourself whether it has done its votaries 
more good or harm. Pray understand me. I do not speak 
against real spiritualism, but against the modern movement 
which goes under that name, and the so-called philosophy 
invented to explain its phenomena. 

Inq. — Do you not believe in their phenomena at all? 

Theo. — It is because I believe in them with too good 
reason, and — save some cases of dehberate fraud — know 
them to be as true as that you and I live, that all my being 
revolts against them. Once more I speak only of physical, 
not mental or even psychic phenomena. Like attracts 
like. There are several high-minded, pure, good men and 
women, known to me personally, who have passed years of 
their lives under the direct guidance and even protection 
of high " spirits,'* whether disembodied or planetary. But 
/y^^j-i? intelhgences are not of the type of the ''John Kings" 
and the '' Ernests " who figure in seance-rooms. These in- 
telligences guide and control mortals only in rare and ex- 
ceptional cases to which they are attracted and magneti- 
cally drawn by the karmic past of the individual. It is not 
enough to sit '' for development " in order to attract them. 
That only opens the door to a swarm of spooks, good, bad, 
and indifferent, to which the medium becomes a slave for 
life. It is against such promiscuous mediumship and inter- 
course with goblins that I raise my voice, not against spirit- 
ual Mysticism. The latter is ennobling and holy ; the 
former is of just the same nature as the phenomena of two 
centuries ago, for which so many witches and wizards have 
been made to suffer. Read Glanvil and other authors on 



172 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

the subject of witchcraft, and you will find recorded there 
the parallels of most, if not all, of the physical phenomena 
of nineteenth- century ''Spiritualism." 

Inq. — Do you mean to suggest that it is all witchcraft and 
7iothing more ? 

Theo. — I mean that, whether conscious or unconscious, 
all this dealing with the dead is necromancy, and a most 
dangerous practice. For ages before Moses such raising of 
the dead was regarded by all the intelligent nations as sin- 
ful and cruel, inasmuch as it disturbs the rest of the souls 
and interferes with their evolutionary development into 
higher states. The collective wisdom of all past centuries 
has ever been loud m denouncing such practices. Finally, 
I say, what I have never ceased repeating orally and^in print 
for fifteen years : While some of the so-called '' spirits " 
do not know what they are talking about, repeating merely, 
like poll-parrots, what they find in the mediums' and other 
people's brains, others are most dangerous and can only 
lead one to evil. These are two self-evident facts. Go 
into spiritualistic circles of the Allan Kardec school, and 
you find '' spirits " asserting reincarnation and speaking 
like Roman Catholics born. Turn to the *' dear departed 
ones " in England and America, and you will hear them 
denying reincarnation through thick and thin, denouncing 
those who teach it, and holding to Protestant views. Your 
best, your most powerful mediums have all suffered in health 
of body and mind. Think of the sad end of Charles Fos- 
ter, who died in an asylum, a raving lunatic ; of Slade, an 
epileptic ; of Eghnton — the best medium now in England 
— subject to the same disease. Look back over the life of 
D. D. Home, a man whose mind was steeped in gall and 
bitterness, who never had a good word to say of any one 
whom he suspected of possessing psychic powers, and who 
slandered every other medium to the bitter end. This Cal- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 173 

vin of Spiritualism suffered for years from a terrible spinal 
disease, brought on by his intercourse with the ''spirits," 
and died a perfect wreck. Think again of the sad fate of 
poor Washington Irving Bishop. I knew him in New York 
when he was fourteen, and he was undeniably a medium. 
It is true that the poor man stole a march on his " spirits " 
and baptized them '' unconscious muscular action," to the 
great gaudium of all the corporations of highly learned 
and scientific fools, and to the replenishment of his own 
pocket. But de morticis nil nisi bo7ium; his end was a sad 
one. He had strenuously concealed his epileptic fits — the 
first and strongest symptom of genuine mediumship — and 
who knows whether he was dead or in a trance when the 
post-mortem examination was performed? His relatives 
insist that he was alive, if we are to believe Renter's tele- 
grams. Finally, behold the veteran mediums, the founders 
and prime movers of modern Spiritualism — the Fox sisters. 
After more than forty years of intercourse, the ''angels" 
have led them to become incurable sots, who are now de- 
nouncing, in pubhc lectures, their own lifelong work and 
philosophy as a fraud. What kind of "spirits" must they 
be who prompted them, I ask you ? 

Inq. — But is your inference a correct one ? 

Theo. — What would you infer if the best pupils of a par- 
ticular school of singing broke down from overstrained sore 
throats ? That the method followed was a bad one ? So 
I think the inference is equally fair with regard to Spiritual- 
ism when we see their best mediums fall a prey to such a 
fate. We can only say : Let those who are interested in 
the question judge the tree of Spiritualism by its fruits, and 
ponder over the lesson. We Theosophists have always re- 
garded the Spiritualists as brothers having the same mystic 
tendency as ourselves ; but they have always regarded us as 
enemies. We, being in possession of an older philosophy, 



174 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

have tried to help and warn them ; but they have repaid us 
by revihng and traducing us and our motives in every pos- 
sible way. Nevertheless the best English SpirituaKsts say 
just as we do, wherever they treat of their belief seriously. 
Hear '' M.A. Oxon." confessing this truth: 

Spiritualists are too much inclined to dwell exclusively on the inter- 
vention of external spirits in this world of ours, and to ignore the powers 
of the incarnate Spirit.* 

Why vilify and abuse us, then, for saying precisely the 
same ? Henceforward we will have nothing more to do 
with Spiritualism. And now let us return to reincarnation. 

* Second Sights Introduction. 



XI. 
ON THE MYSTERIES OF REINCARNATION. 



PERIODICAL REBIRTHS, 

Inq. — You 7nean^ then, that we have all lived on earth be- 
fore in many past incarnations, and shall go on so living ? 

Theo. — I do. The life-cycle, or rather the cycle of con- 
scious life, begins with the separation of the mortal animal 
man into sexes, and will end with the close of the last gen- 
eration of men in the seventh round and seventh race of 
mankind. Considering we are only in the fourth round 
and fifth race, its duration is more easily imagined than ex- 
pressed. 

Inq. — And we keep on tncar7iating in new perso?ialities all 
the time ? 

Theo. — Most assuredly so ; because this life-cycle or 
period of incarnation may be best compared to human life. 
As each such life is composed of days of activity separated 
by nights of sleep or of inaction, so in the incarnation-cycle 
an active life is followed by a devachanic rest. 

Inq. — And it is this succession of births that is generally 
defined as reincarnatio7i ? 

Theo. — Just so. It is only through these births that the 
perpetual progress of the countless miUions of Egos toward 

175 



176 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

final perfection, and a final rest as long as was the period 
of activity, can be achieved. 

Inq. — A7id what is it that regulates the duration or special 
qualities of these incar7iations ? 

Theo. — Karma, the universal law of retributive justice. 

Inq. — Is it an ifitelligent law ? 

Theo. — For the materialist, who calls the law of perio- 
dicity which regulates the marshaling of bodies, and all the 
other laws in Nature, blind forces and mechanical laws, no 
doubt Karma would be a law of chance and no more. For 
us no adjective or qualification could describe that which 
is impersonal and not an entity, but a universal operative 
law. If you question me about the causative intelhgence 
in it, I must answ^er you, I do not know. But if you ask 
me to define its effects and tell you what these are in our 
belief, I may say that the experience of thousands of ages 
has shown us that they are absolute and unerring equity, 
wisdom, and intelligence. For Karma in its effects is an 
unfailing redresser of human injustice, and of all the fail- 
ures of Nature ; a stern adjuster of wrongs ; a retributive law 
which rewards and punishes with equal impartiality. It is, 
in the strictest sense, ''no respecter of persons," though, 
on the other hand, it can neither be propitiated nor turned 
aside by prayer. This is a belief common to Hindus and 
Buddhists, who believe in Karma. 

Inq. — In this Christia?i dogmas contradict both ^ and I doubt 
whether any Christian will accept the teaching. 

Theo. — No ; and Inman gave the reason for it many 
years ago. As he puts it : 

The Christians will accept any nonsense, if promulgated by the 
church as a matter of faith : . . . the Buddhists hold that nothing 
which is contradicted by sound reason can be a true doctrine of 
Buddha. 



I 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 177 

The Buddhists do not beheve in any pardon for their sins, 
except after an adequate and just punishment for each evil 
deed or thought in a future incarnation, and a proportion- 
ate compensation to the parties injured. 

Inq. — Where is it so stated? 

Theo. — In most of their sacred works. In the Wheel of 
the Law (p. 57) you may find the following Theosophical 
tenet : 

Buddhists believe that every act, word, or thought has its conse- 
quence, which will appear sooner or later in the present or in the 
future state. Evil acts will produce evil consequences, good acts will 
produce good consequences : prosperity in this world or birth in heaven 
[Devachan] ... in the future state. 

Inq. — Christians believe the same thi?ig, do they not? 

Theo. — Oh no ; they believe in the pardon and the re- 
mission of ail sins. They are promised that if they only 
believe in the blood of Christ — an in7iocent victim! — in the 
blood offered by him for the expiation of the sins of the 
whole of mankind, it will atone for every mortal sin. And 
we believe neither in vicarious atonement, nor in the pos- 
sibility of the remission of the smallest sin by any God — not 
even by a/<?rj*^;/<2/ Absolute or Infinite, if such a thing could 
have any existence. What we believe in is strict and im- 
partial justice. Our idea of the unknown Universal Deity, 
represented by Karma, is that it is a power which cannot 
fail, and can therefore have neither wrath nor mercy, but 
only absolute equity, which leaves every cause, great or 
small, to work out its inevitable effects. The saying of 
Jesus, '' With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured 
to you again " (Matt. vii. 2), neither by expression nor im- 
plication points to any hope of future mercy or salvation 
by proxy. This is why, recognizing as we do in our phi- 
losophy the justice of this statement, we cannot recommend 
too strongly mercy, charity, and forgiveness of mutual 



178 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

offenses. " Resist not evil " and '' render good for evil " 
are Buddhist precepts, and were first preached in view of 
the implacabihty of karmic law. For man to take the law 
into his own hands is in any case a sacrilegious presumption. 
Human law may use restrictive, not punitive measures ; but 
a man who, believing in Karma, still revenges himself, still 
refuses to forgive every injury, whereby he would render 
good for evil, is a criminal, and only hurts himself. As 
Karma is sure to punish the man who has wronged another, 
by seeking to inflict an additional punishment on one's 
enemy, and, instead of leaving that punishment to the great 
Law, adding to it one's own mite, we only beget thereby a 
cause for the future reward of our enemy and a future pun- 
ishment for ourself. The unfailing *' regulator" in each in- 
carnation affects the quahty of its successor, and the sum 
of the merit or demerit in preceding incarnations determines 
the following rebirth. 

Inq. — Are we, then, to infer a man^s past from his present? 

Theo. — Only so far as to believe that his present life is 
what it justly should be, to atone for the sins of the past 
life. Of course — seers and great Adepts excepted — we can- 
not, as average mortals, know what those sins were. From 
our paucity of data it is impossible for us to determine even 
what an old man's youth must have been ; neither can we, 
for like reasons, draw final conclusions, merely from what 
we see in the life of some man, as to what his past life may 
have been. 

WHA T IS KARMA ? 
Inq. — But what is Karma ? 

Theo. — As I have said, we consider it as the ultimate 
law of the universe, the source, origin, and fount of all 
other laws which exist throughout Nature. Karma is the 
unerring law which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 179 

mental, and spiritual planes of being. As no cause remains 
without its due effect from greatest to least, from a cosmic 
disturbance down to the movement of yoiu: hand, and as 
like produces like, Karma is that unseen and unknown law 
which adjusts wisely^ intelligently^ and equitably each effect 
to its cause, tracing the latter back to its producer. Though 
itself unknowable, its action is perceivable. 

Inq. — Then it is the ^^ absolute^'' the " unknowable ^^^ again, 
and is not of much value as an explanation of the problems of 
life. 

Theo. — On the contrary. For though we do not know 
what Karma is per se and in its essence, we do know how it 
works, and we can define and describe its mode of action 
with accuracy. We only do 7iot know its ultimate cause^ 
just as modem philosophy universally admits that the ulti- 
mate cause of a thing is '' unknowable." 

Inq. — A7id what has Tlieosophy to say in regard to the so- 
lution of the more practical needs of humanity ? What is the 
explanation which it offers of the awful suffering and dire 
necessity prevalent among the so-called '' lower classes " ? 

Theo. — To be pointed: according to our teaching, all 
these great social evils — the distinction of classes in society, 
and of the sexes in the affairs of Ufe, the unequal distribu- 
tion of capital and of labor — all are due to what we tersely 
but truly denominate Karma. 

Inq. — But surely all these evils which seem to fall upon 
the masses somewhat indiscriminately are not actual merited 
and individual Karma ? 

Theo. — No, they cannot be so strictly defined in their 
effects as to show that each individual environment, and 
the particular conditions of life in which each person finds 
himself, are nothing more than the retributive Karma which 
the individual has generated in a previous life. We must 



180 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

not lose sight of the fact that every atom is subject to the 
general law governing the whole body to which it belongs, 
and here we come upon the wider track of the karmic law. 
Do you not perceive that the aggregate of individual Karma 
becomes that of the nation to which those individuals be- 
long, and, further, that the sum total of national Karma is 
that of the world ? The evils that you speak of are not 
pecuUar to the individual or even to the nation ; they are 
more or less universal ; and it is upon this broad line of 
human interdependence that the law of Karma finds its legit- 
imate and equable issue. 

Inq. — Do /, then^ understafid that the law of Karma is not 
necessarily an individual law ? 

Theo. — That is just what I mean. It is impossible that 
Karma could readjust the balance of power in the world's 
life and progress unless it had a broad and general line of 
action. It is held as a truth among Theosophists that the 
interdependence of humanity is the cause of what is called 
distributive Karma, and it is this law which affords the solu- 
tion to the great question of collective suffering and its re- 
lief. It is an occult law, moreover, that no man can rise 
superior to his individual failings without lifting, be it ever 
so little, the whole body of which he is an integral part. 
In the same way no one can sin, nor suffer the effects of 
sin, alone. In reality there is no such thing as " separate- 
ness " ; and the nearest approach to that selfish state which 
the laws of life permit is in the intent or motive. 

Inq. — Aiid are there no means by which the distributive 
or national Karma 7?iight be co?tcentrated or collected, so to 
speak, and brought to its natural and legitimate fulfilment with- 
out all this protracted suffering ? 

Theo. — As a general rule, and within certain limits which 
define the age to which we belong, the law of Karma can- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 181 

not be hastened or retarded in its fulfilment. But of this I 
am certain : the point of possibility in either of these direc- 
tions has never yet been touched. Listen to the following 
recital of one phase of national suffering, and then ask 
yourself whether, admitting the working power of individ- 
ual, relative, and distributive Karma, these evils are not 
capable of extensive modification and general relief. What 
I am about to read to you is from the pen of a national 
savior — one who, having overcome self^ and being free to 
choose, has elected to serve humanity, in bearing at least as 
much as a woman's shoulders can possibly bear of national 
Karma. This is what she says : 

Yes. Nature ahvays does speak, don't you think? Only sometimes 
we make so much noise that we drown her voice. That is why it is so 
restful to go out of the town and nestle awhile in the Mother's arms. 
I am thinking of the evening on Hampstead Heath when we watched 
the sun go down ; but oh, upon what suffering and misery that sun 
had set! A lady brought me yesterday a big hamper of wild-flowers. 
I thought some of my East End family had a better right to it than I, 
and so I took it down to a very poor school in Whitechapel this morn- 
ing. You should have seen t]ie pallid little faces brighten! Thence 
I went to pay for some dinners at a little cook-shop for some children. 
It was in a back street, narrow, full of jostling people ; stench inde- 
scribable, from fish, meat, and other comestibles, all reeking in a sun 
that, in Whitechapel, festers instead of purifying. The cook-shop 
was the quintessence of all the smells. Indescribable meat-pies at 
i^., loathsome lumps of ** food," and swarms of flies — a very altar of 
Beelzebub ! All about, babies on the prowl for scraps, one, with the 
face of an angel, gathering up cherry-stones as a light and nutritious 
form of diet. I came westward with every nerve shuddering and 
jarred, wondering whether anything can be done with some parts of 
London save swallowing them up in an earthquake and starting their 
inhabitants afresh, after a plunge into some purifying Lethe, out of 
which not a memory might emerge! And then I thought of Hamp- 
stead Heath, and — pondered. If by any sacrifice one could win the 
power to save these people, the cost would not be worth counting; 
but, you see, they must be changed — and how can that be wrought? 
In the condition they now are, they would not profit by any environ- 
ment in which they might be placed ; and yet in their present sur- 



182 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

roundings they must continue to putrefy. It breaks my heart, this 
endless, hopeless misery, and the brutish degradation that is at once 
its outgrowth and its root. It is like the banian-tree ; every branch 
roots itself and sends out new shoots. What a difference between 
these feelings and the peaceful scene at Hampstead! And yet we 
who are the brothers and sisters of these poor creatures have only a 
right to use Hampstead Heaths to gain strength to save Whitechapels. 
\_Signed by a fiame too respected and too well known to be given to scoffers. ] 

Inq. — That is a sad but beautifullettei'^ a?id I think it pre- 
sents with painful conspiaiity the terrible workings of what 
you have called '^ 7'elative " and " distributive " Karma, But 
alas ! there seems no i7n7nediate hope of any relief short of an 
earthquake^ or sorne such general engulfntent. 

Theo. — What right have we to think so while one half 
of humanity is in a position to effect an immediate relief of 
the privations which are suffered by their fellows ? When 
every individual has contributed to the general good what 
he can of money, of labor, and of ennobling thought, then, 
and only then, will the balance of national Karma be struck, 
and until then we have no right, nor any reasons, for say- 
ing that there is more life on the earth than Nature can sup- 
port. It is reserved for the heroic souls, the saviors of our 
race and nation, to find out the cause of this unequal pres- 
sure of retributive Karma, and by a supreme effort to re- 
adjust the balance of power, and save the people from a 
moral engulfment a thousand times more disastrous and 
more permanently evil than the like physical catastrophe, 
in which you seem to see the only possible outlet for this 
accumulated misery. 

Inq. — Welly theft ^ tell me generally how you describe this 
law of Karma, 

Theo. — We describe Karma as that law of readjust- 
ment which ever tends to restore disturbed equilibrium in 
the physical, and broken harmony in the moral world. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 183 

We say that Karma does not act in this or that particular 
way always, but that it always does act so as to restore har- 
mony and preserve the balance of equilibrium, in virtue of 
which the universe exists. 

Inq. — Give 77ie an illustration, 

Theo. — Later on I will give you a full illustration. 
Think now of a pond. A stone falls into the water and 
creates disturbing waves. These waves oscillate backward 
and forward till at last, owing to the operation of what 
physicists call the law of the dissipation of energy, they are 
brought to rest, and the water returns to its condition of 
calm tranquillity. Similarly all action, on every plane, pro- 
duces disturbance in the balanced harmony of the universe, 
and the vibrations so produced will continue to roll back- 
ward and forward, if the area is limited, till equilibrium is 
restored. But since each such disturbance starts from some 
particular point, it is clear that equilibrium and harmony 
can only be restored by the recon verging to that same point 
of all the forces which were set in motion from it. And 
here you have proof that the consequences of a man's 
deeds, thoughts, etc., must all react upon himself w\\h the 
same force with which they were set in motion. 

Inq. — But I see nothing of a moral character about this 
law. It looks to me like the simple physical laiv that action 
and reactio?i are equal and opposite, 

Theo. — I am not surprised to hear you say that. Ameri- 
cans have got so much into the ingrained habit of con- 
sidering right and wrong, good and evil, as matters of an 
arbitrary code of law laid down either by men or imposed 
upon them by a personal God. We Theosophists, however, 
say that *' good " and '' harmony," and '' evil " and '' dis- 
harmony,*' are synonymous. Further, we maintain that all 
pain and suffering are results of want of harmony, and that 



184 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

the one temble and only cause of the disturbance of har- 
mony is selfishness in some form or other. Hence Karma 
gives back to every man the actual consequences of his own 
actions, without any regard to their moral character; but 
since he receives his due for all^ it is obvious that he will 
be made to atone for all sufferings which he has caused, 
just as he will reap in joy and gladness the fruits of all the 
happiness and harmony he had helped to produce. I can 
do no better than quote for your benefit certain passages 
from books and articles written by those of our Theoso- 
phists who have a correct idea of Karma. 

Inq. — / wish you would^ as your literature seems to be very 
sparing on this subject. 

Theo. — Because it is the most difficult of all our tenets. 
Some short time ago there appeared the following objection 
from a Christian pen : 

Granting that the teaching in regard to Theosophy is correct, and 
that '* man must be his own savior, must overcome self and conquer 
the evil that is in his dual nature, to obtain the emancipation of his 
soul " — what is man to do after he has been awakened and converted 
to a certain extent from evil or wickedness? How is he to get eman- 
cipation, or pardon, or the blotting out of the evil or wickedness he 
has already done? 

To this Mr. J. H. Connelly replies very pertinently that 
no one can hope to '* make the Theosophical engine run on 
the theological track." As he has it : 

The possibility of shirking individual responsibility is not among the 
concepts of Theosophy. In this faith there is no such thing as pardon- 
ing, or *' blotting out of evil or wickedness already done," otherwise 
than by the adequate punishment therefor of the wrong-doer and the 
restoration of the harmony in the universe that had been disturbed by 
his wrongful act. The evil has been his own, and while others must 
suffer its consequences, atonement can be made by nobody but himself. 

The condition contemplated, ... in which a man shall have been 
'* awakened and converted to a certain extent from evil or wicked- 
ness," is that in which a man shall have realized that his deeds are 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 185 

evil and deserving of punishment. In that realization a sense of per- 
sonal responsibility is inevitable, and just in proportion to the extent 
of his awakening or '* converting" must be the sense of that awful 
responsibility. While it is strong upon him is the time when he is 
urged to accept the doctrine of vicarious atonement. 

He is told that he must also repent ; but nothing is easier than that. 
It is an amiable weakness of human nature that we are quite prone 
to regret the evil we have done when our attention is called and we 
have either suffered from it ourselves or enjoyed its fruits. Possibly 
close analysis of the feeling would show us that that w^hich we regret 
is rather the necessity that seemed to require the evil as a means of 
attainment of our selfish ends than the evil itself. 

Attractive as this prospect of casting our burden of sins ** at the 
foot of the cross " may be to the ordinary mind, it does not commend 
itself to the Theosophic student. He does not apprehend why the 
sinner by attaining knowledge of his evil can thereby merit any par- 
don for, or the blotting out of, his past wickedness ; or why repen- 
tance and future right living entitle him to a suspension in his favor of 
the universal law of relation between cause and effect. The results of 
his evil de^ds continue to exist ; the suffering caused to others by his 
wickedness is not blotted out. The Theosophical student takes the re- 
sult of wickedness upon the innocent into his problem. He considers 
not only the guilty person, but his victims. 

Evil is an infraction of the laws of harmony governing the universe, 
and the penalty thereof must fall upon the violator of that law himself. 
Christ uttered the warning, ^* Sin no more, lest a worse thing come 
unto thee," and St. Paul said, ** Work out your own salvation;" 
" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." That, by the 
way, is a fine metaphoric rendering of the sentence of the Puranas, far 
antedating him — that '^ every man reaps the consequences of his own 
acts." 

This is the principle of the law of Karma which is taught by The- 
osophy. Sinnett, in his Esoteric Buddhism, rendered Karma as *' the 
law of ethical causation." '* The law of retribution," as Madame 
Blavatsky translates its meaning, is better. It is the power which, 

Just, though mysterious, leads us on unerring. 
Through ways unmarked, from guilt to punishment. 

But it is more. It rewards merit as unerringly and amply as it 
punishes demerit. It is the outcome of every act, of thought, word, 
and deed, and by it men mold themselves, their lives and happenings. 



186 THE KEY TO TIIEOSOPHY. 

Eastern philosophy rejects the idea of a newly created soul for every 
baby born. It believes in a limited number of monads, evolving and 
growing more and more perfect through their assimilation of many suc- 
cessive personalities. Those personalities are the product of Karma, 
and it is by Karma and reincarnation that the human monad in time 
returns to its source — absolute deity. 

E. D. Walker, in his Reincar?iation^ offers the following- 
explanation : 

Briefly, the doctrine of Karma is that we have made ourselves what 
we are by former actions, and are building our future eternity by pres- 
ent actions. There is no destiny but what we ourselves determine. 
There is no salvation or condemnation except what we ourselves bring 
about. . . . Because it offers no shelter for culpable actions and neces- 
sitates a sterling manliness, it is less welcome to weak natures than 
the easy religious tenets of vicarious atonement, intercession, forgive- 
ness, and death-bed conversions. ... In the domain of eternal justice 
the offense and the punishment are inseparably connected as the same 
event, because there is no real distinction between the action and its 
outcome. . . . It is Karma, or our old acts, that draws us back into 
earthly life. The spirit's abode changes according to its Karma, and 
this Karma forbids any long continuance in one condition, because it 
is always changing. So long as action is governed by material and 
selfish motives, just so long must the effect of that action be mani- 
fested in physical rebirths. Only the perfectly selfless man can elude 
the gravitation of material life. Few have attained this, but it is the 
goal of mankind. 

And then the writer quotes from The Secret Doctrine : 

Those who believe in Karma have to believe in destiny, which, from 
birth to death, every man is weaving, thread by thread, around him- 
self, as a spider does his cobweb ; and this destiny is guided either by 
the heavenly voice of the invisible prototype outside of us, or by our 
more intimate astral or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius 
of the embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the outward 
man, but one of them must prevail ; and from the very beginning of 
the invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation steps 
in and takes its course, faithfully following the fluctuations. When 
the last strand is woven, and man is seemingly inwrapped in the net- 
work of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the 
empire of this self-made destiny. . . . 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 187 

An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness or 
cruelty of Providence ; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will 
teach that, nevertheless, it guai'ds the good and watches over them in 
this as in future lives ; and that it punishes the e\il-doer — aye, even 
to his seventh rebirth — so long, in short, as the effect of his having 
thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the infinite world 
of harmonv has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree of 
Karma — an eternal and immutable decree — is absolute harmony in the 
world of matter as it is in the world of spirit. It is not, therefore, 
Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we who rew^ard or punish 
ourselves according to whether we work with, through, and along 
with Nature, abiding by the laws on which that harmony depends, or 
— break them. 

Nor would the w^ays of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in 
union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife. For our igno- 
rance of those ways — which one portion of mankind calls the ways of 
Providence, dark and intricate ; while another sees in them the action 
of blind fatalism ; and a third, simple chance, with neither gods nor 
devils to guide them — would surely disappear if we would but attribute 
all these to their correct cause. . . . 

We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making and the 
riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx 
of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident of our lives, not 
a misshapen day or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our 
own doings in this or in another life. . . . 

The law of Karma is inextricably interwoven with that of reincarna- 
tion. ... It is only this doctrine that can explain to us the mysteri- 
ous problem of good and e\-il, and reconcile man to the terrible and 
apparent injustice of life. Nothing but such certainty can quiet our 
revolted sense of justice. For, when one unacquainted with the noble 
doctrine looks around him and observes the inequalities of birth and 
fortune, of intellect and capacities ; when one sees honor paid to fools 
and profligates on whom fortune has heaped her favors by mere privi- 
lege of birth, and their nearest neighbor, w^ith all his intellect and noble 
\artues — far more deserving in every way — perishing for want and for 
lack of sympathy ; when one sees all this and has to turn away, help- 
less to relieve the undeserved suffering, one's ears ringing and heart 
aching with the cries of pain around him, that blessed knowledge of 
Karma alone prevents him from cursing life and men as well as their 
supposed creator. . . . 

This law, whether conscious or unconscious, predestines nothing 
and no one. It exists from and in eternity truly, for it is eternity 



188 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

itself; and as such, since no act can be coequal with eternity, it cannot 
be said to act, for it is action itself. It is not the wave which drowns 
the man, but the personal action of the wretch who goes deliberately 
and places himself under the impersonal action of the laws that gov- 
ern the ocean's motion. Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. 
It is man who plants and creates causes, and karmic law adjusts the 
effects, which adjustment is not an act, but universal harmony, tending 
ever to resume its original position, like a bough, which, bent down 
too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigor. If it happen to 
dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural position, shall 
we say it is the bough which broke our arm, or that our own folly has 
brought us to grief? Karma has never sought to destroy intellectual 
and individual liberty, like the God invented by the monotheists. It 
has not involved its decrees in darkness purposely to perplex man, nor 
shall it punish him who dares to scrutinize its mysteries. On the con- 
trary, he who through study and meditation unveils its intricate paths, 
and throws light on those dark ways, in the windings of which so 
many men perish, owing to their ignorance of the labyrinth of life, is 
working for the good of his fellow-men. Karma is an absolute and 
eternal law in the world of manifestation ; and as there can be only 
one Absolute, as one eternal, ever-present Cause, believers in Karma 
cannot be regarded as atheists or materialists, still less as fatalists ; 
for Karma is one with the Unknowable, of which it is an aspect, in 
its effects in the phenomenal world. 

Another able Theosophic writer, Mrs. P. Sinnett, in her 
Purpose of Theosophy^ says : 

Every individual is making Karma either good or bad in each action 
and thought of his daily round, and is at the same time working out in 
this life the Karma brought about by the acts and desires of the last. 
When we see people afflicted by congenital ailments it may be safely 
assumed that these ailments are the inevitable results of causes started 
by themselves in a previous birth. It may be argued that, as these 
afflictions are hereditary, they can have nothing to do with a past in- 
carnation ; but it must be remembered that the Ego, the real man, the 
individuality, has no spiritual origin in the parentage by which it is 
reembodied, but it is drawn, by the affinities which its previous mode 
of life attracted round it, into the current that carries it, when the time 
comes for rebirth, to the home best fitted for the development of those 
tendencies. . . . This doctrine of Karma, when properly understood, 
is well calculated to guide and assist those who realize its truth to a 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 189 

higher and better mode of life ; for it must not be forgotten that not 
only our actions, but our thoughts also, are most assuredly followed 
by a crowd of circumstances that will influence for good or for evil 
our own future, and, what is still more important, the future of many 
of our fellow-creatures. If sins of omission and commission could in 
any case be only self -regarding, the effect on the sinner's Karma would 
be a matter of minor consequence. The effect that every thought and 
act through life carries with it for good or evil a corresponding influ- 
ence on other members of the human family renders a strict sense of 
justice, morality, and unselfishness so necessary to future happiness 
or progress. A crime once committed, an evil thought sent out from 
the mind, are past recall — no amount of repentance can wipe out their 
results in the future. Repentance, if sincere, will deter a man from 
repeating errors ; it cannot save him or others from the effects of those 
already produced, which will most unerringly overtake him either in 
this life or in the next rebirth. 



Mr. J. H. Connelly proceeds : 

The believers in a religion based upon such doctrine are willing it 
should be compared with one in which man's destiny for eternity is 
determined by the accidents of a single, brief, earthly existence, during 
which he is cheered by the promise that '* as the tree falls, so shall it 
lie " ; in which his brightest hope, when he wakes up to a knowledge 
of his wickedness, is the doctrine of vicarious atonement ; and in which 
even that is handicapped, according to the Presbyterian Confession of 
Faith : 

** By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some 
men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life and others fore- 
ordained to everlasting death. 

** These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are par- 
ticularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain 
and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. ... As 
God hath appointed the elect unto glory, . . . neither are any other 
redeemed by Christ effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, 
and saved, but the elect only. 

*' The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearch- 
able counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth 
mercy as he pleaseth, for the glory of his sovereign power over his 
creatures, to pass by and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for 
their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice." 



190 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

This is what the able defender says. Nor can we do any 
better than wind up the subject as he does, by a quotation 
from a magnificent poem. As he says : 

The exquisite beauty of Edwin Arnold's exposition of Karma in 
The Light of Asia tempts to its reproduction here, but it is too long 
for quotation in full. Here is a portion of it : 

Karma — all that total of a soul 

Which is the things it did, the thoughts it had, 
The ** self " it wove with woof of viewless time 

Crossed on the warp invisible of acts. 

****** 
Before beginning and without an end, 

As space eternal and as surety sure. 
Is fixed a Power divine which moves to good, 

Only its laws endure. 

It will not be contemned of any one ; 

Who thwarts it loses, and who serves it gains ; 
The hidden good it pays with peace and bliss. 

The hidden ill with pains. 

It seeth everywhere and marketh all ; 

Do right — it recompenseth! Do one wrong — 
The equal retribution must be made, 

Though Dharma tarry long. 

It knows not wrath nor pardon ; utter-true. 

Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs ; 
Times are as naught — to-morrow it will judge — 

Or after many days. 

****** 
Such is the law which moves to righteousness, 

Which none at last can turn aside or stay ; 
The heart of it is love, the end of it 

Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey. 

And now I advise you to compare our Theosophic views 
upon Karma, the law of retribution, and say whether they 
are not both more philosophical and just than this cruel and 
idiotic dogma which makes of '' God " a senseless fiend— 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 191 

the tenet, namely, that the ''elect only" will be saved, and 
the rest doomed to eternal perdition ! 

Inq. — Yes^ I see what you inean genei'ally ; but I wish you 
could give some co7icrete exa)?iple of the action of Karma. 

Theo. — That I cannot do. We can only feel sure, as 
I said before, that our present lives and circumstances are 
the direct results of our own deeds and thoughts in lives 
that are past. But we, who are not seers or Initiates, can- 
not know anything about the details of the working of the 
law of Karma. 

Inq. — Ca7t any one^ eve7i a7i Adept or seer, follow out this 
karmic process of readjicstment in detail ? 

Theo. — Certainly ; ''those who know" can do so by the 
exercise of powers which are latent even in all men. 



WHO ARE THOSE WHO KNOW? 

Inq. — Does this hold equally of ourselves as of others ? 

Theo. — Equally. As just said, the same hmited vision 
exists for all, save for those who have reached, in the 
present incarnation, the acme of spiritual vision and clair- 
voyance. We can only perceive that, if things ought to 
have been different with us, they would have been differ- 
ent ; that we are what we have made ourselves, and have 
only what we have earned for ourselves. 

Inq. — lam afraid such a conception would oftly e^nbitterus. 

Theo. — I believe it is precisely the reverse. It is dis- 
belief in the just law of retribution that is more likely to 
awaken every combative feeling in man. A child, as 
much as a man, resents a punishment, or even a reproof, he 
beheves to be unmerited, far more than he does a severer 
punishment, if he feels that it is merited. Belief in Karma 



192 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

is the highest motive for reconcilement to one's lot in this 
hfe, and the very strongest incentive toward effort to better 
the succeeding rebirth. Both of these, indeed, would be 
destroyed if we supposed that our lot was the result of any- 
thing but strict law^ or that destiny was in any other hands 
than our own. 

Inq. — You have just asserted that this syste7?i of reincarna- 
tio7i under karmic law commended itself to reason^ justice^ and 
the moral sense. But, if so, is it ?iot at some sacrifice of the 
gentler qualities of sympathy and pity, and thus a hardening 
of the finer instincts of human nature ? 

Theo. — Only apparently, not really. No man can re- 
ceive more or less than his deserts without a correspond- 
ing injustice or partiaHty to others ; and a law which could 
be averted through compassion would bring about more 
misery than it saved, more irritation and curses than thanks. 
Remember, also, that we do not administer the law, if we 
do create causes for its effects ; it administers itself ; and 
again, that the most copious provision for the manifesta- 
tion oijust compassion and mercy is shown in the state of 
Devachan. 

Inq. — You speak of Adepts as being an exception to the rule 
of our general ignorance. Do they really know more than we 
do of rei?icar?iatio7t and after-states ? 

Theo. — They do indeed. By the training of faculties 
we all possess, but which they alone have developed to per- 
fection, they have entered in spirit these various planes and 
states we have been discussing. For long ages one gen- 
eration of Adepts after another has studied the mysteries 
of being, of life, death, and rebirth, and all have taught in 
their turn some of the facts so learned. 

Inq. — And is the production of Adepts the aim of Theos- 
ophy? 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 193 

Theo. — Theosophy considers humanity as an emanation 
from divinity on its retnrn-path thereto. At an advanced 
point upon the path adeptship is reached by those who 
have devoted several incarnations to its achievement. For, 
remember well, no man has ever reached adeptship in the 
secret sciences in one life ; but many incarnations are 
necessary for it after the formation of a conscious purpose 
and the beginning of the needful training. Many may be 
the men and women in the very midst of our Society who 
have begun this uphill work toward illumination several in- 
carnations ago, and who yet, owing to the personal illusions 
of the present life, are either ignorant of the fact, or on the 
road to losing every chance, in this existence, of progress- 
ing any farther. They feel an irresistible attraction toward 
Occultism and the '' higher Hfe," and yet are too personal 
and self-opinionated, too much in love with the deceptive 
allurements of mundane life and the world's ephemeral 
pleasures, to give them up, and so lose their chance in their 
present birth. But, for ordinary men, for the practical 
duties of daily life, such a far-off result is inappropriate as 
an aim and quite ineffective as a motive. 

Inq. — What, then, may be their object or distinct purpose 
in joining the Theosophical Society ? 

Theo. — Many are interested in our doctrines, and feel 
instinctively that they are truer than those of any dogmatic 
rehgion. Others have formed a fixed resolve to attain the 
highest ideal of man's duty. 



THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAITH AND KNOW-- 
LEDGE, OR BLIND AND REASONED FAITH, 

Inq. — You say that they accept and believe in the doctrines 
of Theosophy. But as they do not belong to those Adepts you 
have just mentioned^ then they must accept your teachings on 



194 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

** blind faith, ^^ In what does this differ from that of coiive?i- 
tionai religions ? 

Theo. — As it differs on almost all the other points, so it 
differs on this one. What you call ''faith/' and that which 
is "blind faith," in reality, with regard to the dogmas of the 
Christian religions, becomes with us knowledge^ the logical 
sequence of things we kiiow^ dHooMX. facts in Nature. Your 
doctrines are based upon interpretation, therefore upon the 
second-hand testimony of seers ; ours upon the unvarying 
and invariable testimony of seers. The ordinary Christian 
theology, for instance, holds that man is a creature of 
God, of three component parts — body, soul, and spirit — 
all essential to his integrity, and all, either in the gross form 
of physical earthly existence or in the etherealized form of 
post-resurrection experience, needed to so constitute him 
forever, each man having thus a permanent existence sep- 
arate from other men and from the divine. Theosophy, 
on the other hand, holds that, man being an emanation from 
the unknown yet ever-present and infinite Divine Essence, 
his body and everything else is impermanent, hence an 
illusion; spirit alone in him being the one enduring sub- 
stance, and even that losing its separated individuality at 
the moment of its complete reunion with the Universal 
Spirit. 

Inq. — If we lose even our individuality^ then it becomes 
simply a7inihilatio7i. 

Theo. — I say it does not, since I speak of separate^ not 
of universal individuality. This individuahty becomes as 
a part transformed into the whole ; the '' dewdrop ** is not 
evaporated, but becomes the sea. Is physical man annihi- 
lated when from a fetus he becomes an old man ? What 
kind of Satanic pride must be ours if we place our infini- 
tesimally small consciousness and individuality higher than 
the universal and infinite consciousness ! 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 195 

Inq, — It follows^ thetiy that there is, de facto, ?io man, but 
all is spirit ? 

Theo. — You are mistaken. It follows that the union 
of spirit with matter is but temporary; or, to put it more 
clearly, since spirit and matter are one, being the two oppo- 
site poles of the universal manifested substance, spirit loses 
its right to the name so long as the smallest particle and 
atom of its manifesting substance still clings to any form, the 
result of differentiation. To believe otherwise is ''blind faith." 

Inq. — Thus it is on knowledge, not on faith, that you as- 
sert that the pennanent principle, the spirit, simply makes a 
transit through matter ? 

Theo. — I would put it otherwise and say : We assert that 
the appearance of the permanent and one principle — spirit 
— as matter is transient, and therefore no better than an 
illusion. 

Inq. — Very well ; and this given out on knoivledge, not 
faith ? 

Theo. — ^Just so. But as I see very well what you are 
driving at, I may just as well tell you that we hold faith 
such as you advocate to be a mental disease, and real 
faith — i.e., the pistis of the Greeks — as ''belief based on 
knowledge," whether supplied by the evidence of physical 
or spiritual senses. 

Inq. — What do you mean ? 

Theo. — If it is the difference between the two that you 
want to know, I mean that between yb///? 07i authority and 
faith on one's spiritual intuition there is a very great differ- 
ence. 

Inq. — What is it? 

Theo. — One is human credulity and superstition, the 
other human belief and intuition. As Professor Alexan- 



196 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

der Wilder says in his Introduction to the Eleusmian 
Mysteries : 

It is ignorance which leads to profanation. Men ridicule what they 
do not properly understand. . . . The undercurrent of this world is 
set toward one g(3al ; and inside of human credulity ... is a power 
ahnost infinite, a holy faith capable of apprehending the supremest 
truths of all existence. 

Those who limit that '' creduhty *^ to human authoritative 
dogmas alone will never fathom that power, nor even per- 
ceive it in their natures. It is stuck fast to the external 
plane, and is unable to bring forth into play the essence 
that rules it ; for to do this they have to claim their right 
of private judgment, and this they never dare to do. 

Inq. — A7id is it this '' intuition " which forces you to reject 
God as aperso?ial Father, ruler, and governor of the universe ? 

Theo. — Precisely. We believe in an ever-unknowable 
Principle ; for only blind aberration can make one main- 
tain that the universe, thinking man, and all the marvels 
contained even in the world of matter, could have grown 
without some intelligent powers to bring about the extraor- 
dinarily wise arrangement of all its parts. Nature may 
err, and often does, in its details and the external manifesta- 
tions of its materials, never in its inner causes and results. 
Ancient pagans held far more philosophical views on this 
question than modem philosophers, whether agnostics, mate- 
riaHsts, or Christians; and no pagan writer has ever yet 
advanced the proposition that cruelty and mercy are not 
finite feelings, and can therefore be made the attributes 
of an infinite God. Their gods, therefore, were all finite. 
The Siamese author of the Wheel of the Law expresses the 
same idea about your personal God as ourselves ; he says 
(p. 25): 

A Buddhist might believe in the existence of a God sublime above 
^U human qualities and attributes — a perfect God, above love s^nd 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 197 

hatred and jealousy, calmly resting in a quietude that nothing could 
disturb ; and of such a God he would speak no disparagement, not 
from a desire to please him or fear to offend him, but from natural 
veneration. But he cannot understand a God with the attributes and 
qualities of men ; a God who loves and hates and shows anger ; a 
Deity who, whether described as by Christian missionaries or by 
Mahometans or Brahmins * or Jews, falls below his standard of even 
an ordinary good man. 

Inq. — Faith for faith ^ is not the faith of the Christian who 
believes^ in his human helplessness and humility^ that there is 
a me^xiful Father i?i heaven who will protect him from temp- 
tation^ help him in life, a?id forgive him his transgressiofis, 
better than the cold aftd proud, ahnost fatalistic, faith of the 
Buddhists, Vedantins, and Theosophists ? 

Theo. — Persist in calling our belief '' faith " if you will. 
But once we are again on this ever-recurring question, I ask 
in my turn : Faith for faith, is not the one based on strict 
logic and reason better than the one w^hich is based simply 
on human authority or — hero-worship ? Our '' faith " has 
all the logical force of the arithmetical truism that two and 
two will produce four. Your faith is like the logic of some 
emotional women, of whom Tourgenyeff said that for them 
two and two were generally five, and a tallow candle into 
the bargain. Yours is a faith, moreover, which clashes 
not only with every conceivable view of justice and logic, 
but which, if analyzed, leads man to his moral perdition, 
checks the progress of mankind, and positively making of 
might right, transforms every second man into a Cain to 
his brother Abel. 

HAS GOD THE RIGHT TO FORGIVE? 

Inq. — To what do you allude? 

Theo. — To the doctrine of " atonement.'' I allude to that 
dangerous dogma in which you beHeve, and which teaches 

" Sectarian Brahmans ar here meant. The Parabrahman of the Vedantins is the 
Deity we accept and believe in. 



198 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

US that no matter how enormous our crimes against the 
laws of God and of man, we have but to believe in the 
self-sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of mankind, and his 
blood will wash out every stain. It is now twenty years 
that I have preached against it, and I may now draw your 
attention to a paragraph from/^/V Unveiled^ written in 1875. 
This is what Christianity teaches, and what we combat : 

God's mercy is boundless and unfathomable. It is impossible to 
conceive of a human sin so damnable that the price paid in advance for 
the redemption of the sinner would not wipe it out if a thousandfold 
worse. And, furthermore, it is never too late to repent. Though the 
offender wait until the last minute of the last hour of the last day of 
his mortal life before his blanched lips utter the confession of faith, 
he may go to Paradise ; the dying thief did so, and so may all others 
as vile. These are the assumptions of the church and of the clergy ; 
assumptions banged at the heads of your countrymen by England's 
favorite preachers, right in the 'Might of the nineteenth century" — 
this most paradoxical age of all! 

Now, to what does it lead? 

Inq. — Does it not make the Christian happier than the 
Buddhist or Brdhmaii ? 

Theo. — No ; not the educated man, at any rate, since 
the majority of these have long since virtually lost all belief 
in this cruel dogma. But it leads those who still believe in 
it more easily to the threshold of every conceivable crime than 
any other I know of. Let me quote to you from Isis Un- 
veiled once more (ii., 542, 543) : 

If we step outside the little circle of creed and consider the uni- 
verse as a whole balanced by the exquisite adjustment of parts, how 
all sound logic, how the faintest glimmering sense of justice, revolts 
against this vicarious atonement! If the criminal sinned only against 
himself, and wronged no one but himself ; if by sincere repentance he 
could cause the obliteration of past events, not only from the memory 
of man, but also from that imperishable record which no deity — not 
even the Supremest of the Supreme — can cause to disappear, then this 
dogma might not be incomprehensible. But to maintain that one may 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 199 

wrong his fellow-man, kill, disturb the equilibrium of society and the 
natural order of things, and then — through cowardice, hope, or com- 
pulsion matters not — be forgiven by believing that the spilling of one 
blood washes out the other blood spilled — this is preposterous ! Can the 
results of a crime be obliterated even though the crime itself should be 
pardoned? The effects of a cause are never limited to the boundaries 
of the cause, nor can the results of crime be confined to the offender 
and his victim. Every good as well as evil action has its effects, as 
palpably as the stone flung into calm water. The simile is trite, but 
it is the best ever conceived, so let us use it. The eddying circles are 
greater and swifter as the disturbing object is greater or smaller ; but 
the smallest pebble — nay, the tiniest speck — makes its ripples. And 
this disturbance is not alone visible and on the surface. Below% un- 
seen, in every direction — outward and downward — drop pushes drop 
until the sides and bottom are touched by the force. More, the air 
above the water is agitated, and this disturbance passes, as the physi- 
cists tell us, from stratum to stratum out into space for ever and ever ; 
an impulse has been given to matter, and that is never lost, can never 
be recalled! . . . 

So with crime and so with its opposite. The action may be instan- 
taneous, the effects are eternal. When, after the stone is once flung 
into the pond, we can recall it to the hand, roll back the ripples, oblit- 
erate the force expended, restore the*etheric waves to their previous 
state of non-being, and wipe out every trace of the act of throwing the 
missile, so that Time's record shall not show that it ever happened, 
then, then we may patiently hear Christians argue for the efficacy of 
this atonement 

and — cease to believe in karmic law. As it now stands, 
we call upon the whole world to decide which of our two 
doctrines is the most appreciative of deific justice, and 
which is more reasonable, even on simple human evidence 
and logic. 

Inq. — Yet 7nil lions believe in the Christimi dogma and are 
happy, 

Theo. — Pure sentimentalism overpowering their thinking 
faculties, which no true philanthropist or altruist will ever 
accept. It is not even a dream of selfishness, but a night- 
mare of the human intellect. Look where it leads to, and 



200 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

tell me the name of that pagan country where crimes are 
more easily committed or more numerous than in Christian 
lands. Look at the long and ghastly annual records of 
crimes committed in European countries ; and behold Prot- 
estant and biblical America. There conversioiis effected in 
prisons are more numerous than those made by public re- 
vivals and preaching. 

See how the ledger -balance of Christian justice ( ! ) stands. Red- 
handed murderers, urged on by the demons of lust, revenge, cupidity, 
fanaticism, or mere brutal thirst for blood, who kill their victims, in 
most cases, without giving them time to repent or call on Jesus. 
These, perhaps, died sinful, and, of course — consistently with theo- 
logical logic — met the reward of their greater or lesser offenses. But 
the murderer, overtaken by human justice, is imprisoned, wept over by 
sentimentalists, prayed with and at, pronounces the charmed words of 
conversion, and goes to the scaffold a redeemed child of Jesus ! Except 
for the murder he would not have been prayed with, redeemed, par- 
doned. Clearly this man did well to murder, for thus he gained eter- 
nal happiness ! And how about the victim, and his or her family, rela- 
tives, dependents, social relations ; has justice no recompense for them? 
Must they suffer in this world and the next, while he who wronged 
them sits beside the '* holy thief" of Calvary and is forever blessed? 
On this question the clergy keep a prudent silence.* 

And now you know why Theosophists — whose funda- 
mental behef and hope is justice for all, in heaven as on 
earth, and in Karma — reject this dogma. 

Inq. — The tilti?nate desti?ty of man ^ then^ is not a heaven 
presided over by God, but the gradual transformatio7i of mat- 
ter into its primordial element, spirit ? 

Theo. — It is to that final goal to which all tends in 
Nature. 

Inq. — Do 7iot some of you regard this association or ^^fall 
of spirit into inatter^^ as evil, and rebirth as a sorrow ? 

* /sis Unveiled, ibid. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 201 

Theo. — Some do, and therefore strive to shorten their 
period of probation on earth. It is not, however, an un- 
mixed evil, since it insures the experience upon which we 
mount to knowledge and wisdom. I mean that experience 
which teaches that the needs of our spiritual nature can 
never be met by other than spiritual happiness. As long 
as we are in the body we are subjected to pain, suffering, 
and all the disappointing incidents occurring during life. 
Therefore, and to palliate this, we finally acquire know- 
ledge which alone can afford us relief and hope of a better 
future. 



XII. 
WHAT IS PRACTICAL THEOSOPHY? 



DUTY. 

Inq. — Whyy then, the need for rebirths, since all alike fail 
to secure a permanent peace ? 

Theo. — Because the final goal cannot be reached in any 
way but through life-experiences, and because the bujk of 
these consists in pain and suffering. It is only through the 
latter that we can learn. Joys and pleasures teach us 
nothing ; they are evanescent, and can only in the long run 
bring satiety. Moreover, our constant failure to find any 
permanent satisfaction in life which would meet the wants 
of our higher nature shows us plainly that those wants can 
be met only on their own plane — to wit, the spiritual. 

Inq. — Is the natural result of this a desire to quit life by 
one means or another ? 

Theo. — If you mean by such desire ''suicide," then I 
say, most decidedly not. Such a result can never be a 
" natural " one, but is ever due to a morbid brain-disease, 
or to most decided and strong materialistic views. It is 
the worst of crimes, and dire in its results. But if by de- 
sire you mean simply aspiration to reach spiritual existence, 
and not a wish to quit the earth, then I would call it a very 

202 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 203 

natural desire indeed. Otherwise voluntary death would 
be an abandonment of our present post and of the duties 
incumbent on us, as well as an attempt to shirk karmic re- 
sponsibilities, and thus involve the creation of new Karma. 

Inq. — But if actions on the inaterial plarte are unsatisfying^ 
why should duties, which are such actions, be imperative ? 

Theo. — First of all, because our philosophy teaches us 
that the object of doing our duties to all men first and to 
ourselves last is not the attainment of personal happiness, 
but of the happiness of others ; the fulfilment of right for the 
sake of right, not for what it may bring us. Happiness, or 
rather contentment, may indeed follow the performance of 
duty, but is not and must not be the motive for it. 

Inq. — What do you imderstand precisely by ^' duty " i7i 
Theosophy ? It cannot be the Christian duties preached by 
Jesus a?td his apostles, since you recognize neither, 

Theo. — You are once more mistaken. What you call 
'* Christian " duties were inculcated by every great moral 
and religious reformer ages before the Christian era. All 
that was great, generous, heroic, was, in days of old, not 
only talked about and preached from pulpits as in our own 
time, but acted upo7i, sometimes by whole nations. The his- 
tory of the Buddhist reform is full of the most noble and 
most heroically unselfish acts. '' Be ye all of one mind, 
having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be 
pitiful, be courteous : not rendering evil for evil, or railing 
for railing : but contrariwise blessing,'' was practically car- 
ried out by the followers of Buddha several centuries be- 
fore Peter. The ethics of Christianity are grand, no doubt ; 
but, as undoubtedly, they are not new, and have originated 
as " pagan " duties. 

Inq. — And how would you define these duties, or *^ duty^^ 
in general, as you understand the term ? 



204 THE KEY TO TIIEOSOPHV. 

Theo. — Duty is that which is due to humanity — to our 
fellow-men, neighbors, family — and especially that which 
we owe to all those who are poorer and more helpless than 
we are ourselves. This is a debt which, if left unpaid dur- 
ing life, leaves us spiritually insolvent and moral bankrupts 
in our next incarnation. Theosophy is the quintessence of 
duty. 

Inq. — So is Christianity when rightly understood and car- 
ried out. 

Theo. — No doubt it is ; but then, were it not a lip-re- 
ligion in practice, Theosophy would have little to do amid 
Christians. Unfortunately it is but such lip-ethics. Those 
who practise their duty toward all, and for duty's own 
sake, are few ; and fewer still are those who perform that 
duty, remaining content with the satisfaction of their own 
secret consciousness. It is 

The public voice 
Of praise, that honors virtue and rewards it, 

which is ever uppermost in the minds of the "world-re- 
nowned " philanthropists. Modem ethics are beautiful to 
read about and hear discussed ; but what are words unless 
converted into actions ? Finally, ;f you ask me how we 
understand Theosophical duty practically and in view of 
Karma, I may answer you that our duty is to drink to the 
last drop, without a murmur, whatever contents the cup of 
life may have in store for us, to pluck the roses of Ufe only 
for the fragrance they may shed on others, and to be our- 
selves content but with the thorns, if that fragrance cannot 
be enjoyed without depriving some one else of it. 

Inq. — All this is very vague. What do you do more than 

Christians do ? 

Theo. — It is not what we members of the Theosophical 
Society do — though some of us try our best — but how 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. i>05 

much farther Theosophy leads to good than modern 
Christianity does. I say action — enforced action — instead 
of mere intention and talk. A man may be what he likes 
— the most worldly, selfish, and hard-hearted of men, even 
a deep-dyed rascal — and it will not prevent him from call- 
ing himself a Christian, or others from so regarding him. 
But no Theosophist has the right to this name unless he is 
thoroughly imbued with the correctness of Carlyle's truism, 
'' The end of man is an action and not a thotight, though it 
were the noblest," and unless he sets and models his daily 
life upon this truth. The profession of a truth is not yet 
the enactment of it ; and the more beautiful and grand it 
sounds, the more loudly virtue or duty is talked about in- 
stead of being acted upon, the niore forcibly it will always 
remind one of the Dead Sea fruit. Ca?it is the most loath- 
some of all vices, and cant is the most prominent feature of 
the greatest Protestant country of this century — England. 

Inq. — What do you consider as due to humanity at large? 

Theo. — Full recognition of equal rights and privileges 
for all, without distinction of race, color, social position, or 
birth. 

Inq. — When would you co?isider such due not given ? 

Theo. — When there is the slightest invasion of another's 
right, be that other a man or a nation ; when there is any 
failure to show him the same justice, kindness, considera- 
tion, or mercy which we desire for ourselves. The whole 
present system of pohtics is built on the oblivion of such 
rights and the most fierce assertion of national selfishness. 
The French say, ''Like master, like man;" they ought to 
add, '* Like national pohcy, like citizen." 

Inq. — Do you take any part in politics ? 

Theo. — As a society we carefully avoid them, for the rea- 
r^ons given below. To seek to achieve political reforms be- 



206 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

fore we have effected a reform in human nature is like putting 
new wine into old bottles. Make men feel and recognize 
in their innermost hearts what is their real, true duty to all 
men, and every old abuse of power, every iniquitous law 
in the national policy based on human, social, or political 
selfishness, will disappear of itself. Foolish is the gardener 
who tries to weed his flower-bed of poisonous plants by 
cutting them off from the surface of the soil, instead of 
tearing them out by the roots. No lasting political reform 
can be ever achieved with the same selfish men at the head 
of affairs as of old. 

THE RELATIONS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 
TO POLITICAL REFORMS. 

Inq. — The Theosophical Society is ?tot, then, a political or- 
ganization ? 

Theo. — Certainly not. It is international in the highest 
sense, in that its members comprise men and women of all 
races, creeds, and forms of thought, who work together for 
one object — the improvement of humanity ; but as a society 
it takes absolutely no part in any national or party politics. 

Inq. — Why is this ? 

Theo. — For the very reasons I have mentioned. More- 
over, political action must necessarily vary with the cir- 
cumstances of the time and with the idiosyncrasies of in- 
dividuals. While, from the very nature of their position 
as Theosophists, the members of the Theosophical Society 
are agreed on the principles of Theosophy, or they would 
not belong to the Society at all, it does not thereby follow 
that they agree on every other subject. As a society they 
can only act together in matters which are common to all 
— that is, in Theosophy itself ; as individuals, each is left 
perfectly free to follow out his or her particular line of 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 207 

political thought and action, so long as this does not con- 
flict with Theosophical principles or hurt the Theosophical 
Society. 

Inq. — But surely the Theosophical Society does not stand 
altogether aloof from the social questiofis which are now so fast 
coming to the front ? 

Theo. — The very principles of the Theosophical Society 
are a proof that it does not — or, rather, that most of its 
members do not — so stand aloof. If humanity can only 
be developed mentally and spiritually by the enforcement, 
first of all, of the soundest and most scientific physiological 
laws, it is the bounden duty of all who strive for this de- 
velopment to do their utmost to see that those laws shall be 
generally carried out. All Theosophists are only too sadly 
aware that, in Occidental countries especially, the social 
condition of large masses of the people renders it impos- 
sible for either their bodies or their spirits to be properly 
trained, so that the development of both is thereby arrested. 
As this training and development is one of the express ob- 
jects of Theosophy, the Theosophical Society is in thor- 
ough sympathy and harmony with all true efforts in this 
direction. 

Inq. — But what do you mean by '' true efforts " / Each 
social refor^ner has his ow7i panacea^ and each believes his to 
be the 07ie and only thing which caii improve and save hu- 
manity, 

Theo. — Perfectly true ; and this is the real reason why 
so little satisfactory social work is accomplished. In most 
of these panaceas there is no really guiding principle, and 
there is certainly no one principle which connects them all. 
Valuable time and energy are thus wasted ; for men, instead 
of cooperating, strive one against the other, often, it is to 
be feared, for the sake of fame and reward rather than for 



208 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

the great cause which they profess to have at heart, and 
which should be supreme in their lives. 

Inq. — Hoii^^ the?i, should TJieosophical prviciples be applied 
so that social cooperation may be promoted and true efforts for 
social amelioration be carried on ? 

Theo. — Let me briefly remind you what these principles 
are : Universal Unity and Causation ; Human Solidarity ; 
the Law of Karma ; Reincarnation. These are the four 
links of the golden chain which should bind humanity into 
one family, one Universal Brotherhood. 

Inq. — How ? 

Theo. — In the present state of society, especially in so- 
called civilized countries, we are continually brought face 
to face with the fact that large numbers of people are 
suffering from misery, poverty, and disease. Their physi- 
cal condition is wretched, and their mental and spiritual 
faculties are often almost dormant. On the other hand, 
many persons at the opposite end of the social scale are 
leading lives of careless indifference, material luxury, and 
selfish indulgence. Neither of these forms of existence is 
mere chance. Both are the effects of the conditions which 
surround those who are subject to them, and the neglect of 
social duty on the one side is most closely connected with 
the stunted and arrested development on the other. In 
sociology, as in all branches of true science, the law of uni- 
versal causation holds good. But this causation necessarily 
implies, as its logical outcome, that human solidarity on 
which Theosophy so strongly insists. If the action of one 
reacts on the lives of all — and this is the true scientific idea — 
then it is only by all men becoming brothers and all women 
sisters, and by all practising in their daily lives true brother- 
hood and true sisterhood, that the real human solidarity 
which lies at the root of the elevation of the race can ever 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 209 

be attained. It is this action and interaction, this true 
brotherhood and sisterhood, in which each shall live for all 
and all for each, which is one of the fundamental Theosoph- 
ical principles that every Theosophist should be bound not 
only to teach, but to carry out \\\ his or her individual life. 

Inq. — All this is very ivell as a ge7ieral principle^ but how 
would you apply it in a concrete way ? 

Theo. — Look for a moment at what you would call the 
concrete facts of human society. Contrast the lives not 
only of the masses of the people, but of many of those who 
are called the middle and upper classes, with what they 
might be under healthier and nobler conditions, where jus- 
tice, kindness, and love were paramount, instead of the 
selfishness, indifference, and brutality which now too often 
seem to reign supreme. All good and evil things in 
humanity have their roots in human character, and this 
character is, and has been, conditioned by the endless chain 
of cause and effect. But this conditioning applies to the 
future as well as to the present and the past. Selfishness, 
indifference, and brutality can never be the normal state of 
the race ; to believe so would be to despair of humanity, 
and that no Theosophist can do. Progress can be attained, 
and only attained, by the development of the nobler 
qualities. Now, true evolution teaches us that by altering 
the surroundings of the organism we can alter and improve 
the organism ; and in the strictest sense this is true with re- 
gard to man. Every Theosophist, therefore, is bound to do 
his utmost to help on, by all the means in his power, every 
wise and well-considered social effort which has for its ob- 
ject the amelioration of the condition of the poor. Such 
efforts should be made with a view to their ultimate social 
emancipation, or the development of the sense of duty in 
those who now so often neglect it in nearly every relation 
of life, 



210 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Inq. — Agreed. But who is to decide whether social efforts 
are wise or unwise ? 

Theo. — No one person and no society can lay down a 
hard-and-fast rule in this respect. Much must necessarily 
be left to the individual judgment. One general test may, 
however, be given : Will the proposed action tend to pro- 
mote that true brotherhood which it is the aim of Theoso- 
phy to bring about ? No real Theosophist will have much 
difficulty in applying such a test ; once he is satisfied of this, 
his duty will lie in the direction of forming pubhc opinion. 
And this can be attained only by inculcating those higher 
and nobler conceptions of pubhc and private duties which 
lie at the root of all spiritual and material improvement. 
In every conceivable case he himself must be a center of 
spiritual action, and from him and his own daily individual 
life must radiate those higher spiritual forces which alone 
can regenerate his fellow-men. 

Inq. — But ivhy should he do this ? Air not he and all^ 
as you teach ^ co?tditioned by their Karma ^ and must not Karma 
necessarily work itself out on certain lilies ? 

Theo. — It is this very law of Karma which gives strength 
to all that I have said. The individual cannot separate him- 
self from the race, nor the race from the individual. The 
law of Karma applies equally to all, although all are not 
equally developed. In helping on the development of 
others the Theosophist beheves that he is not only helping 
them to fulfil their Karma, but that he is also, in the strict- 
est sense, fulfilling his own. It is the development of 
humanity, of which both he and they are integral parts, 
that he has always in view, and he knows that any failure 
on his part to respond to the highest within him retards not 
only himself, but all, in their progressive march. By his 
actions he can make it either more difficult or more easy 
for humanity to attain the next higher plane of being. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 211 

Inq. — How does this bear on the fourth of the principles 
you mentioned^ viz., reincarnatiofi ? 

Theo. — The connection is most intimate. If our pres- 
ent lives depend upon the development of certain principles 
which are a growth from the germs left by a previous exis- 
tence, the law holds good as regards the future. Once grasp 
the idea that universal causation is not merely present, but 
past, present, and future, and every action on our present 
plane falls naturally and easily into its true place, and is 
seen in its true relation to ourselves and to others. Every 
mean and selfish action sends us backward and not for- 
ward, while every noble thought and every unselfish deed 
are stepping-stones to the higher and more glorious planes 
of being. If this life were all, then in many respects it 
would indeed be poor and mean ; but regarded as a prep- 
aration for the next sphere of existence, it may be used as 
the golden gate through which we may pass — not selfishly 
and alone, but in company with our fellows — to the palaces 
which lie beyond. 

ON SELF-SACRIFICE. 

Inq. — Is equal justice to all and love to every creature the 
highest standard of Theosophy ? 

Theo. — No ; there is an even far higher one. 

Inq. — What caii it be ? 

Theo. — The giving to others more than to one's self — 
self sacrifice. Such was the standard and abounding mea- 
sure which marked so preeminently the greatest teachers and 
masters of humanity — such as Gautama Buddha in history, 
and Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels. This trait alone was 
enough to secure them the perpetual reverence and grati- 
tude of the generations of men that came after them. We 
say, however, that self-sacrifice has to be performed with 



212 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

discrimination ; and such a self-abandonment, if made with- 
out justice, or bHndly, regardless of subsequent results, may 
often prove not only to have been made in vain, but even 
to be harmful. One of the fundamental rules of Theosophy 
is justice to one's self — viewed as a unit of collective human- 
ity, not as a personal self — justice, not more, but not less, 
than to others ; unless, indeed, by the sacrifice of the one 
Self we can benefit the many. 

Inq. — Could y oil make your idea clearer by giving an ifi- 
stance ? 

Theo. — There are many instances to illustrate it in his- 
tory. Self-sacrifice for the practical good of many or sev- 
eral people Theosophy holds far higher than self-abnegation 
for a sectarian idea, such as that of ** saving the heathen 
, from damnation," for instance. In our opinion. Father 
Damien, the young man of thirty who offered his whole life 
in sacrifice for the benefit and alleviation of the sufferings 
of the lepers at Molokai; who, after living for eighteen 
years alone with them, finally caught the loathsome disease 
and died, has not died in vain. He has given rehef and rel- 
ative happiness to thousands of miserable wretches. He 
has brought to them consolation, mental and physical. He 
threw a streak of light into the black and dreary night of 
an existence the hopelessness of which is unparalleled in the 
records of human suffering. He was a true Theosophist, 
and his memory will live forever in our annals. In our 
sight this poor Belgian priest stands immeasurably higher 
than, for instance, all those sincere but vainglorious fools, 
the missionaries who have sacrificed their lives in the South 
Sea Islands or China. What good have they done ? They 
went in one case to those who were not yet ripe for any 
truth ; and in the other to a nation whose systems of reH- 
gious philosophy are as grand as any, if only the men who 
have them would live up to the standard of their Confucius 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 213 

and Other sages. They died victims of irresponsible canni- 
bals and savages, and of popular fanaticism and hatred; 
whereas, by going to the slums of Whitechapel, or some 
other such locality of those that stagnate right under the 
blazing sun of our civilization, full of Christian savages and 
mental leprosy, they might have done real good, and pre- 
served their Hves for a better and worthier cause. 

Inq. — But the Christians do not think so. 

Theo. — Of course not, for they act on an erroneous be- 
lief. They think that by baptizing the body of an irrespon- 
sible savage they save his soul from damnation. One church 
forgets her martyrs, the other beatifies and raises statues to 
such men as Labre, who sacrificed his body for forty years 
only to benefit the vermin which it bred. Had we the 
means to do so, we would raise a statue to Father Damien, 
the true, practical saint, and perpetuate his memory forever 
as a living exemplar of Theosophical heroism and of Buddha- 
and Christ-hke mercy and self-sacrifice. 

Inq. — Then you regard self-sacrifice as a duty ? 

Theo. — We do ; and explain it by showing that altruism 
is an integral part of self-development. But we have to dis- 
criminate. A man has no right to starve himself to death 
that another man may have food, unless the life of that 
man is obviously more useful to the many than is his own 
life. But it is his duty to sacrifice his own comfort, and to 
work for others, if they are unable to work for themselves. 
It is his duty to give all that is wholly his own and can 
benefit no one but himself if he selfishly keeps it from others. 
Theosophy teaches self-abnegation, but does not teach rash 
and useless self-sacrifice, nor does it justify fanaticism. 

Inq. — But how are we to reach such an elevated status ? 

Theo. — By the enhghtened appHcation of our precepts 
to practice ; by the use of oux higher reason, spiritual intui- 



214 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

tion, and moral sense ; and by following the dictates of what 
we call '' the still small voice " of our conscience, which is that 
of our Ego, and speaks louder in us than the earthquakes 
and the thunders of Jehovah, wherein ''the Lord is not." 

Inq. — If such are our duties to humanity at large ^ what do 
you understand by our duties to our immediate surroundings ? 

Theo. — Just the same, plus those that arise from special 

obligations with regard to family ties. 

Inq. — Then it is not true^ as it is said, that no sooner does 
a man enter into the Theosophical Society than he begins to be 
gradually severed from his wife, children, and family duties ? 

Theo. — It is a groundless calumny, like so many others. 
The first of the Theosophical duties is to do one's duty by 
all men, and especially by those to whom one's specific re- 
sponsibilities are due, because one has either voluntarily 
undertaken them — such as marriage ties — or because one's 
destiny has alhed one to them — such as those we owe to 
parents or next of kin. 

Inq. — And what may be the duty of a Theosophist to him- 
self? 

Theo. — To control and conquer, through the Higher 
Self, the lower self ; to purify himself inwardly and morally ; 
to fear no one, and naught, save the tribunal of his own 
conscience ; never to do a thing by halves — i.e., if he thinks 
it the right thing to do, let him do it openly and boldly ; 
and if wrong, never touch it at all. It is the duty of a 
Theosophist to lighten his burden by thinking of the wise 
aphorism of Epictetus, who says : 

Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflection the silly world 
may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power, and 
consequently should not be any part of your concern. 

Inq. — But suppose a member of your Society should plead 
inability to practise altruism to other people on the ground that 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 215 

'' charity begins at home "y urging that he is too busy^ or too 
poor^ to benefit mankind or even any of its units ; what are 
your rules in such a case ? 

Theo. — No man, on any pretext whatever, has a right 
to say that he can do nothing for others. '' By doing the 
proper duty in the proper place, a man may make the 
world his debtor," says an English writer. A cup of cold 
water given in time to a thirsty wayfarer is a nobler duty, 
and of more worth, than a dozen dinners given away, out 
of season, to men who can afford to pay for them. No man 
who has not got it in him will ever become a Theosophist ; 
but he may remain a member of our Society all the same. 
We have no rules by which we can force any man to become 
a practical Theosophist if he does not desire to be one. 

Inq. — Theii why does he enter the Society at all? 

Theo. — That is best known to him who does so. For, 
here again, we have no right to prejudge a person, not even 
if the voice of a whole community should be against him, 
and I may tell you why. In our day vox populi — so far as 
regards the voice of the educated, at any rate — is no longer 
vox Dei^ but ever that of prejudice, of selfish motives, and 
often simply of unpopularity. Our duty is to sow seeds 
broadcast for the future, and see they are good ; not to stop 
to inquire why we should do so, and how and wherefore we 
are obliged to lose our time, since those who will reap the 
harvest in days to come will never be ourselves. 



ON CHARITY, 

Inq. — How do you Theosophists regard the Christian duty 
of charity ? 

Theo. — What charity do you mean — charity of mind, or 
practical charity on the physical plane ? 



216 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Inq. — / mean practical charity^ as your idea of universal 
brotherhood would include^ of course^ charity of mind, 

Theo. — Then you have in your mind the practical carry- 
ing out of the commandments given by Jesus in the Sermon 
on the Mount ? 

Inq. — Precisely so. 

Theo. — Then why call them ''Christian"? For, al- 
though their Saviour preached and practised them, the last 
thing the Christians of to-day think of is to carry them out 
in their lives. 

Inq. — And yet many are those who pass their lives in dis- 
pensing charity, 

Theo. — Yes, out of the surplus of their great fortunes. 
But point out to me that Christian, among the most phil- 
anthropic, v^ho would give the shivering and starving thief 
who steals his coat his cloak also, or offer his right 
cheek to him who smites him on the left, and never think 
of resenting it. 

Inq. — Ah I but yotc must re7nember that these precepts have 
not to be takefi literally. Times and circumstances have 
changed since Chris fs day. Moreover^ he spoke in parables, 

Theo. — Then why do not your churches teach that the 
doctrine of damnation and hell-fire is to be understood 
as a parable too ? Why do some of your most popular 
preachers, while virtually allowing these parables to be 
understood as you take them, insist on the literal meaning 
of the fires of hell and the physical tortures of an '' asbes- 
tos-like " soul ? If one is a parable, then the other is. If hell- 
fire is a literal truth, then Christ's commandments in the 
Sermon on the Mount have to be obeyed to the very letter. 
And I tell you that many who do not believe in the divinity 
of Christ — Hke Count Leo Tolstoi and more than one 



THE KEY TO THEdSOPHY. 217 

Theosophist — do carry out these noble and universal pre- 
cepts literally ; and many more good men and women 
would do so were they not more than certain that such a 
walk in life would very probably land them in a lunatic 
asylum — so Christian are your laws ! 

Inq. — But surely every one knows that millions and mil- 
lio7is are spent annually on private and public charities ? 

Theo. — Oh yes ; and half of it sticks to the hands it 
passes through before getting to the needy, while a good 
portion of the remainder gets into the hands of professional 
beggars, who are too lazy to work, thus doing no good 
whatever to those who are really in misery and suffering. 
Have you not heard that the first result of the great outflow 
of charity toward the East End of London was to raise the 
rents in Whitechapel some twenty percent. ? 

Inq. — What would you do, then ? 

Theo. — Act individually and not collectively ; follow the 
Northern Buddhist precepts : 

Never put food into the mouth of the hungry by the hand of another. 

Never let the shadow of thy neighbor [a third person] come be- 
tween thyself and the object of thy bounty. 

Never give to the sun time to dry a tear before thou hast wiped it. 

Never give money to the needy, or food to the priest, who begs at 
thy door, through thy servants^ lest thy money should diminish grati- 
tude, and thy food turn to gall. 

Inq. — But how cafi this be applied practically ? 

Theo. — The Theosophical idea of charity means per- 
sonal exertion for others ; persofial mercy and kindness ; 
personal interest in the welfare of those who suffer ; personal 
sympathy, forethought, and assistance in their troubles or 
needs. Theosophists do not believe in giving money 
through other people's hands or organizations. We believe 
in giving to the money a thousandfold greater power and 



218 THE "KEY TO THRO SOPHY, 

effectiveness by our personal contact and sympathy with 
those who need it. We believe in relieving the starvation 
of the soul, as much, if not more than, the emptiness of the 
stomach ; for gratitude does more good to the man who 
feels it than to him for whom it is felt. Where is the 
gratitude which your ^' millions of pounds " should have 
called forth, or the good feeHngs provoked by them ? Is 
it shown in the hatred of the East End poor for the rich, 
in the growth of the party of anarchy and disorder, or by 
those thousands of unfortunate working-girls, victims to the 
" sweating '^ system, driven daily to eke out a living by go- 
ing on the streets ? Do your helpless old men and women 
thank you for the workhouses ; or your poor for the poison- 
ously unhealthy dwellings in which they are allowed to 
breed new generations of diseased, scrofulous, and rickety 
children, only to put money into the pockets of the insati- 
able Shylocks who own houses ? Therefore it is that every 
sovereign of all those '' milHons " contributed by good and 
would-be charitable people falls like a burning curse instead 
of a blessing on the poor whom it should relieve. We call 
this generating national Karma^ and terrible will be its re- 
sults on the day of reckoning. 



THEOSOPHY FOR THE MASSES. 

Inq. — And you think that Theosophy would, by stepping in, 
help to remove these evils, U7ider the practical and adverse con- 
ditions of our modern life ? 

Theo. — Had we more money, and had not most of the 
Theosophists to work for their daily bread, I firmly believe 
we could. 

Inq. — How ? Do you expect that your doctrines could ever 
take hold of the uneducated masses, when they are so abstruse 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 219 

and difficult that well-educated people can hardly understand 
them ? 

Theo. — You forget one thing : that your much-boasted 
modem education is precisely that which makes it difficult 
for you to understand Theosophy. Your mind is so full of 
intellectual subtleties and preconceptions that your natural 
intuition and perception of truth cannot act. It does not 
require metaphysics or education to make a man understand 
the broad truths of Karma and reincarnation. Look at the 
milHons of poor and uneducated Buddhists and Hindus, to 
whom Karma and reincarnation are solid realities, simply 
because their minds have never been cramped and distorted 
by being forced into an unnatural groove. They have 
never had the innate human sense of justice perverted in 
them by being told to believe that their sins would be for- 
given because another man had been put to death for their 
sakes. And the Buddhists, note well, live up to their beliefs 
without a murmur against Karma or what they regard as 
a just punishment ; whereas the Christian populace neither 
lives up to its moral ideal, nor accepts its lot contentedly. 
Hence murmuring and dissatisfaction, and the intensity of 
the struggle for existence in Western lands. 

Inq. — But this conte7ited7iess, which you praise so mtich, 
would do away with all motive for exertion arid bring progress 
to a standstill. 

Theo. — And we Theosophists say that your vaunted 
progress and civilization are no better than a host of 
will-o'-the-wisps flickering over a marsh which exhales a 
poisonous and deadly miasma. This because we see selfish- 
ness, crime, immorality, and all the evils imaginable, pounc- 
ing upon unfortunate mankind from this Pandora's box 
which you call an age of progress, and mcresismg pari pass?/ 
with the growth of your material civilization. At such a 
price, better the inertia and inactivity of Buddhist countries, 



220 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHW 

which have resulted only as a consequence of ages of politi- 
cal slavery. 

Inq. — Then are all these metaphysics and mysticism with 
which you occupy yourself so much of no importance ? 

Theo. — To the masses, who need only practical gui- 
dance and support, they are not of much consequence ; but 
for the educated, the natural leaders of the masses, those 
whose modes of thought and action will sooner or later be 
adopted by these masses, they are of the greatest importance. 
It is only by means of the philosophy that an intelligent and 
educated man can avoid the intellectual suicide of believing 
on blind faith ; and it is only by assimilating the strict con- 
tinuity and logical coherence of the Eastern, if not esoteric, 
doctrines that he can realize their truth. Conviction breeds 
enthusiasm, and *' enthusiasm," says Bulwer Lytton, '' is the 
genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories 
without it ;" while Emerson most truly remarks that " every 
great and commanding movement in the annals of the 
world is the triumph of enthusiasm." And what is more 
calculated to produce such a feeling than a philosophy so 
grand, so consistent, so logical, and so all-embracing as our 
Eastern doctrines ? 

Inq. — Aiid yet its enemies are very nmnerous, and every 
day Theo sop hy acquires new oppone7its. 

Theo. — And this is precisely what proves its intrinsic ex- 
cellence and value. People hate only the things they fear, 
and no one goes out of his way to overthrow that which 
neither threatens nor rises beyond mediocrity. 

Inq. — Do you hope to i?7tpart this €7ithusiasm 07ie day to 
the masses ? 

Theo. — Why not? — since history tells us that the masses 
adopted Buddhism with enthusiasm, while, as said before, 
the practical effect upon them of this philosophy of ethics 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 221 

is still shown by the smallness of the percentage of crime 
among Buddhist populations as compared with every other 
religion. The chief point is to uproot that most fertile 
source of all crime and immorality — the belief that it is 
possible for men to escape the consequences of their own 
actions. Once teach them that greatest of all laws, Karma 
and reincarnation, and besides feehng in themselves the true 
dignity of human nature, they will turn from evil and eschew 
it as they would a physical danger. 

HOW MEMBERS CAN HELP THE SOCIETY, 

Inq. — How do you expect the Fellows of your Society to 
help ill the work ? 

Theo. — First, by studying and comprehending the Theo- 
sophical doctrines, so that they may teach others, especially 
the young people. Secondly, by taking every opportunity 
of talking to others and explaining to them what Theosophy 
is and what it is not; by removing misconceptions and 
spreading an interest in the subject. Thirdly, by assisting 
in circulating our hterature by buying books when they 
have the means, by lending and giving them, and by in- 
ducing their friends to do so. Fourthly, by defending the 
Society from the unjust aspersions cast upon it by every 
legitimate device in their power. Fifthly, and most impor- 
tant of all, by the example of their own lives. 

Inq. — But all this literature^ to the spread of which you 
attach so much importance^ does not see?n to me of miich prac- 
tical use in helping mankind. This is not practical charity. 

Theo. — We think otherwise. We hold that a good book 
which gives people food for thought, which strengthens and 
clears their minds, and enables them to grasp truths which 
they have dimly felt, but could not formulate — we hold that 
such a book does a real, substantial good. As to what you 



222 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

call practical deeds of charity, to benefit the bodies of our 
fellow-men, we do what little we can ; but, as I have already 
told you, most of us are poor, while the Society itself has 
not even the money to pay a staff of workers. All of us 
who toil for it give our labor gratis, and in most cases 
money as well. The few who have the means of doing 
what are usually called charitable actions follow the Bud- 
dhist precepts and do their work themselves — not by proxy 
or by subscribing publicly to charitable funds. What the 
Theosophist has to do above all is to forget his personality. 



WHAT A THEOSOPHIST OUGHT NOT TO DO, 

Inq. — Have you a?iy prohibitory laws or clauses for TTie- 
osophists in your Society ? 

Theo. — Many; but alas! none of them are enforced. 
They express the ideal of our organization ; but the practi- 
cal application of such things we are compelled to leave to 
the discretion of the Fellows themselves. Unfortunately, 
the state of men's minds in the present century is such that, 
unless we allow these clauses to remain, so to speak, ob- 
solete, no man or woman would dare to risk joining the 
Theosophical Society. This is precisely why I feel forced 
to lay such a stress on the difference between true Theoso- 
phy and its hard-struggling and well-intentioned but still 
unworthy vehicle, the Theosophical Society. 

Inq. — May I be told what are these perilous reefs in the 
open sea of Theosophy ? 

Theo. — Well may you call them reefs, as more than one 
otherwise sincere and well-meaning Fellow of the Theosoph- 
ical Society has had his Theosophical canoe shattered into 
splinters on them! And yet to avoid certain things seems 
the easiest thing in the world to do. For instance, here is 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 223 

a series of such negatives, screening positive Theosophical 
duties : 

No Theosophist should be silent when he hears evil re- 
ports or slanders spread about the Society or innocent per- 
sons, whether they be his colleagues or outsiders. 

Inq. — But suppose what one hears is the truth, or 7nay be 
true without one hiowing it ? 

Theo. — Then you must demand good proofs of the as- 
sertion, and hear both sides impartially, before you permit 
the accusation to go uncontradicted. You have no right to 
beheve in evil until you get undeniable proof of the correct- 
ness of the statement. 

Inq. — And what should you do then ? 

Theo. — Pity and forbearance, charity and long-suffering, 
ought to be always there to prompt us to excuse our sinning 
brethren, and to pass the gentlest sentence possible upon 
those who err. A Theosophist ought never to forget what 
is due to the shortcomings and infirmities of human nature. 

Inq. — Ought he to forgive entirely in such cases ? 

Theo. — In every case, especially he who is sinned 
against. 

Inq. — But if by so doing he risks injuring or allows others 
to be injured, what ought he to do then ? 

Theo. — His duty — that which his conscience and higher 
nature suggest to him ; but only after mature deliberation. 
Justice consists in doing no injiuy to any living being ; but 
justice commands us also never to allow injury to be done 
to the many, or even to one innocent person, by allowing 
the guilty one to go unchecked. 

Inq. — What are the other negative clauses ? 

Theo. — No Theosophist ought to be contented with an 
idle or frivolous life, doing no real good to himself and still 



224 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

less to others. He should work for the benefit of the few 
who need his help, if he is unable to toil for humanity, and 
thus work for the advancement of the Theosophical cause. 

Inq. — This demands an exceptional natu7r^ and would come 
rather hard up07i soine persons, 

Theo. — Then they had better remain outside of the 
Theosophical Society, instead of sailing under false colors. 
No one is asked to give more than he can afford, whether 
in devotion, time, work, or money. 

Inq. — What comes next ? 

Theo. — No working member should set too great value 
on his personal progress or proficiency in Theosophic stud- 
ies ; but must be prepared, rather, to do as much altruistic 
work as hes in his power. He should not leave the whole 
of the heavy burden and responsibility of the Theosophical 
movement on the shoulders of the few devoted workers. 
Each member ought to feel it his duty to take what share he 
can in the common work, and help it by every means in his 
power. 

Inq. — This is but just. What comes next? 

Theo. — No Theosophist should place his personal vanity 
or feelings above those of his Society as a body. He who 
sacrifices the latter, or other people's reputations, on the 
altar of his personal vanity, worldly benefit, or pride, ought 
not to be allowed to remain a member. One cancerous 
limb diseases the whole body. 

Inq. — Is it the duty of every member to teach others and 
preach Theosophy ? 

Theo. — It is indeed. No Fellow has a right to remain 
idle on the excuse that he knows too httle to teach. For 
he may always be sure that he will find others who know 
still less than himself. And also it is not until a man be- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 225 

gins to try to teach others that he discovers his own igno- 
rance and tries to remove it. But this is a minor clause. 

Inq. — What do you consider^ then, to be the chief of these 
negative Theosophical duties ? 

Theo. — To be ever prepared to recognize and confess 
one's faults ; to rather sin through exaggerated praise than 
through too Uttle appreciation of one's neighbor's efforts; 
never to backbite or slander another person ; always to say 
openly and direct to his face anything you have against him ; 
never to make yourself the echo of anything you may hear 
against another, nor harbor revenge against those who 
happen to injiu"e you. 

Inq. — But it is often dangerous to tell people the truth to 
their faces. Do you not think so ? I know of one of your 
members who was bitterly offe7ided, left the Society, and be- 
ca7ne its greatest enemy, only because he was told some un- 
pleasant truths to his face, and was blamed for them, 

Theo. — Of such we have had many. No member, 
whether prominent or insignificant, has ever left us without 
becoming our bitter enemy. 

Inq. — How do you account for it? 

Theo. — It is simply this: having been, in most cases, 
intensely devoted to the Society at first, and having lavished 
upon it the most exaggerated praises, the only possible ex- 
cuse such a backslider can make for his subsequent be- 
havior and past short-sightedness is to pose as an innocent 
and deceived victim, thus casting the blame from his own 
shoulders on to those of the Society in general, and its 
leaders especially. Such persons remind one of the old 
fable about the man with a distorted face, who broke his 
looking-glass in the belief that it reflected his countenance 
crookedly. 



226 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Inq. — But what makes these people turii against the 
Society ? 

Theo. — Wounded vanity in some form or other, almost 
in every case. Generally because their dicta and advice are 
not taken as final and authoritative, or else because they are 
of those who would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. 
Because, in short, they cannot bear to stand second to any- 
body in anything. So, for instance, one member — a true 
" Sir Oracle '' — criticized and almost defamed every mem- 
ber in the Theosophical Society to outsiders as much as 
to Theosophists, under the pretext that they were all '' un- 
theosophical," blaming them precisely for what he was 
himself doing all the time. Finally he left the Society, 
giving as his reason a profound conviction that we were 
all (the founders especially) frauds ! Another one, after 
intriguing in every possible way to be placed at the head 
of a large section of the Society, finding that the members 
would not have him, turned against the founders of the 
Theosophical Society and became their bitterest enemy, de- 
nouncing one of them whenever he could, simply because 
the latter could not, and would not, force him upon the 
members. This was simply a case of an outrageous 
wounded vanity. Still another wanted to, and virtually 
did, practise black magic — i.e., undue personal psychologi- 
cal influence — on certain Fellows, while pretending devotion 
and every Theosophical virtue. When this was put a stop 
to, the member broke with Theosophy, and now slanders 
and lies against the same hapless leaders in the most 
virulent manner, endeavoring to break up the Society by 
blackening the reputation of those whom that worthy 
person was unable to deceive. 

Inq. — What would you do with such characters ? 

Theo. — Leave them to their Karma. Because one 
person does evil that is no reason for others to do so. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 227 

Inq. — But^ to retiirfi to slander, where is the line of demar- 
cation between backbitiyig and just criticism to be drawn ? Is 
it not one's duty to war?i one's friends and neighbors against 
those whom one knows to be dangerous associates ? 

Theo. — If by allowing them to go on unchecked other 
persons may be thereby injured, it is certainly our duty to 
obviate the danger by warning them privately. But, true 
or false, no accusation against another person should ever 
be spread abroad. If true, and the fault hurts no one but 
the sinner, then leave him to his Karma. If false, then 
you will have avoided adding to the injustice in the world. 
Therefore keep silent about such things with every one not 
directly concerned. But if your discretion and silence are 
likely to hurt or endanger others, then I add. Speak the 
truth at all costs, and say with Annesley, '' Consult duty, 
not events." There are cases when one is forced to ex- 
claim, '' Perish discretion rather than allow it to interfere 
with duty ! " 

Inq. — Methi7iks, if you carry out these maxims^ you are 
likely to reap a nice crop of troubles / 

Theo. — And so we do. We have to admit that we are 
now open to the same taunt as the early Christians were. 
** See how these Theosophists love one another ! " may now 
be said of us without a shadow of injustice. 

Inq. — Admitting yourself that there is at least as much, if 
not more, backbiting, slandering, a7id quarreling in the Theo- 
sophical Society as i7i the Christian churches, let alone scien- 
tific societies, what kind of brotherhood is this, may I ask ? 

Theo. — A very poor specimen indeed as at present, and, 
until carefully sifted and reorganized, no better than all 
others. Remember, however, that human nature is the 
same in the Theosophical Society as out of it. Its mem- 
bers are no saints ; they are at best sinners trying to do 



228 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

better, and liable to fall back owing to personal weakness. 
Add to this that our '^ brotherhood " is no recognized or 
established body, and stands, so to speak, outside of the 
pale of jurisdiction. Besides which, it is in a chaotic con- 
dition, and more unjustly unpopular than any other body. 
What wonder, then, that those members who fail to carry 
out its ideal should, after leaving the Society, turn for 
sympathetic protection to our enemies, and pour all their 
gall and bitterness into their too wiUing ears ! Knowing 
that they will find support, sympathy, and ready credence 
for every accusation, however absiu-d, that it may please 
them to launch against the Theosophical Society, they 
hasten to do so, and vent their wrath on the innocent 
looking-glass which reflected too faithfully their faces. 
People never forgive those whom they have wronged. 
The sense of kindness received, and repaid by them with 
ingratitude, drives them into a madness of self -justification 
before the world and their own consciences. The former 
is but too ready to believe in anything said against a 
society it hates. The latter — but I will say no more, 
fearing I have already said too much. 

Inq. — Your position does not seem to me a very enviable 
one, 

Theo. — It is not. But do you not think that there 
must be something very noble, very exalted, very true, 
behind the Society and its philosophy, when the leaders and 
the founders of the movement still continue to work for it 
with all their strength ? They sacrifice to it all comfort, all 
worldly prosperity and success, even to their good name 
and reputation- — aye, even to their honor — to receive in 
return incessant and ceaseless obloquy, relentless persecu- 
tion, untiring slander^ constant ingratitude, and misunder- 
standing of their best efforts — blows and buffets from all 
sides — when by simply dropping their work they would find 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 229 

themselves immediately released from every responsibility, 
shielded from every further attack. 

Inq. — / confess such a perseveraiice seems to me very as- 
toimding^ and I wondered why you did all this. 

Theo. — Believe me, for no self-gratification ; only in the 
hope of training a few individuals to carry on our work for 
humanity with its original program when the founders are 
dead and gone. They have already found a few such 
noble and devoted souls to replace them. The coming 
generations, thanks to these few, will find the path to 
peace a little less thorny, and the way a little widened, and 
thus all this suffering will have produced good results, and 
their self-sacrifice will not have been in vain. At present 
the main, fundamental object of the Society is to sow 
germs in the hearts of men which may in time sprout, and, 
under more propitious circumstances, lead to a healthy re- 
form conducive of more happiness to the masses than they 
have hitherto enjoyed. 



XIII. 

ON THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE THEO- 
SOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



THEOSOPHY AND ASCETICISM, 

Inq. — I have heard people say that your rules required all 
members to be vegetarians^ celibates^ and rigid ascetics ; but 
you have not told me anything of the sort yet. Can you tell 
me the truth once for all about this ? 

Theo. — The truth is that our rules require nothing of the 
kind. The Theosophical Society does not even expect, far 
less require, of any of its members that they should be 
ascetics in any way, except — if you call that asceticism — 
that they should try and benefit other people and be 
unselfish in their own lives. 

Inq. — But still many of your members are strict vegeta- 
rians^ and openly avow their intention of remaining unmarried. 
This, too, is most often the case with those who take a promi- 
nent part in connection with the work of your Society, 

Theo. — That is only natiu-al, because most of our really 
earnest workers are members of the inner section of the 
Society, about which I told you before. 

Inq. — Oh, then you do require ascetic practices i7i that 
inner sectio7i ? 

230 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 231 

Theo. — No, we do not require or enjoin them even 
there. But I see that I had better give you an explanation 
of our views on the subject of asceticism in general, and 
then you will understand about vegetarianism and so on. 

Inq. — Please proceed, 

Theo. — As I have already told you, most people who 
become really earnest students of Theosophy and active 
workers in our Society wish to do more than study theo- 
retically the truths we teach. They wish to kfiow the truth 
by their own direct personal experience, and to study Oc- 
cultism with the object of acquiring the wdsdom and power 
which they feel they need in order to help others effectu- 
ally and judiciously, instead of blindly and at haphazard. 
Therefore, sooner or later, they join the inner section. 

Inq. — But you said that ^^ ascetic practice s^^ are not obliga- 
tory even in that iiiner section. 

Theo. — No more they are ; but the first thing which the 
members learn there is a true conception of the relation of 
the body, or physical sheath, to the inner, the true man. 
The relation and mutual interaction between these two 
aspects of human nature are explained and demonstrated 
to them, so that they soon become imbued with the supreme 
importance of the inner man over the outer case or body. 
They are taught that bhnd, unintelligent asceticism is mere 
folly ; that such conduct as that of St. Labre, of which I 
spoke before, or that of the Indian fakirs and jungle ascet- 
ics, who cut, bum, and macerate their bodies in the most 
cruel and horrible manner, is simply self-torture for selfish 
ends — i.e., to develop will-power — but is perfectly useless 
for the purpose of assisting true spiritual or Theosophic de- 
velopment. 

Inq. — I see you regard only moral asceticism as necessary. 
It is as a means to an end, that end being the perfect equilib- 



232 THE KEY TO THRO SOPHY, 

rium of the inner nature of man, and the attainment of com- 
plete mastery over the body, with all its passions and desires, 

Theo. — Just so. But these means must be used intelli- 
gently and wisely, not blindly and foolishly ; like an athlete 
who is training and preparing for a great contest, not like 
the miser who starves himself into illness that he may grat- 
ify his passion for gold. 

Inq. — / understand now ymcr general idea ; but let us see 
how you apply it iii practice. How about vegetarianism, for 
instance ? 

Theo. — One of the great German scientists has shown 
that every kind of animal tissue, however you may cook it, 
still retains certain marked characteristics of the animal to 
which it belonged, and these characteristics can be recog- 
nized. Apart from that, also, every one knows by the taste 
what meat he is eating. We go a step farther, and prove 
that when the flesh of animals is assimilated by man as 
food, it imparts to him, physiologically, some of the char- 
acteristics of the animal it came from. Moreover, occult 
science teaches and proves this to its students by ocular 
demonstration, showing also that this '' coarsening " or 
'' animalizing " effect on man is greatest from the flesh of 
the larger animals, less for birds, still less for fish and other 
cold-blooded animals, and least of all when he eats only 
vegetables. 

Inq. — Then would it be better not to eat at all? 

Theo. — If he could live without eating, of course it 
would. But as the matter stands, he must eat to live, and 
so we advise really earnest students to eat such food as 
will least clog and weight their brains and bodies, and will 
have the smallest effect in hampering and retarding the 
development of their intuition, their inner faculties and 
powers. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 233 

Inq.— 7%^;^ you do not adopt all the arguments which vege* 
tarians in general are in the habit of using ? 

Theo. — -Certainly not. Some of their arguments are 
very weak, and often based on assumptions which are quite 
false. But, on the other hand, many of the things they say 
are quite true. For instance, we beheve that much disease, 
and especially the great predisposition to disease which is 
becoming so marked a feature in our time, is very largely 
due to the eating of meat, and especially of tinned meats. 
But it would take too long to go thoroughly into this 
question of vegetarianism on its merits ; so please pass on 
to something else. 

Inq. — 07ie question more : What are your members of the 
inner section to do with regard to their food when they are ill? 

Theo. — Follow the best practical advice they can get, 
of course. Do you not grasp yet that we never impose 
any hard-and-fast obligations in this respect ? Remember 
once for all that in all such questions we take a rational, 
and never a fanatical, view of things. If from illness or 
long habit a man cannot go without meat, why, by all 
means, let him eat it. It is no crime ; it will only retard 
his progress a little ; for after all is said and done, the purely 
bodily actions and functions are of far less importance than 
what a man thinks and feels; what desires he encourages 
in his mind, and allows to take root and grow there. 

Inq. — Then with regard to the use of wine and spirits: I 
suppose you do not advise people to drink them ? 

Theo. — They are worse for a man's moral and spiritual 
growth than meat, for alcohol in all its forms has a direct, 
marked, and very deleterious influence on his psychic con- 
dition. Wine and spirit drinking is only less destructive to 
the development of the inner powers than the habitual use 
of hashish, opium, and similar drugs. 



234 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 



THEOSOPHY AND MARRIAGE, 

Inq. — Now to another question : Must a 7nan marry or 
re?nain a celibate ? 

Theo. — It depends on the kind of man you mean. If 
you refer to one who intends to Hve in the world ; one who, 
even though a good, earnest Theosophist, and an ardent 
worker for our cause, still has ties and wishes which bind 
him to the world ; who, in short, does not feel that he has 
done forever with what men call life, and that he desires 
one thing and one thing only — to know the truth and to 
be able to help others — then for such a one I say there is 
no reason why he should not marry, if he likes to take the 
risks of that lottery where there are so many more blanks 
than prizes. Surely you cannot believe us so absurd and 
fanatical as to preach against marriage altogether ? On 
the contrary, save in a few exceptional cases of practical 
Occultism, marriage is the only remedy against immorality. 

Inq. — But why cannot one acquire this knowledge and 
power when living a married life ? 

Theo. — My dear sir, I cannot go into physiological 
questions with you ; but I can give you an obvious and, I 
think, a sufficient answer, which will explain to you the 
moral reasons we give for it. Can a man serve two mas- 
ters ? No ! Then it is equally impossible for him to 
divide his attention between the pursuit of Occultism and 
a wife. If he tries to, he will assuredly fail in doing either 
properly ; and, let me remind you, practical Occultism is far 
too serious and dangerous a study for a man to take up 
unless he is in the most deadly earnest, and ready to sacri- 
fice all — himself first of all — to gain his end. But this does 
not apply to the members of our inner section. I am only 
referring to those who are determined to tread that path of 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 235 

discipleship which leads to the highest goal. Most, if not 
all, of those who join our inner section are only beginners, 
preparing themselves in this hf e to enter in reahty upon that 
path in lives to come. 



THE OS O PHY AND EDUCATION. 

Inq. — One of your strongest arguments for the inadequacy 
of the existing forms of religio?i i?i the West, as also to some 
extent the materialistic philosophy which is now so popular^ 
but which you seem to consider as an abomi?tation of desola- 
tion^ is the large amount of misery and wretched7iess which 
undeniably exists, especially in our great cities. But surely 
you must recognize hoiv much has been and is being done to 
remedy this state of things by the spread of education and the 
diff^usion of intelligence. 

Theo. — The future generations will hardly thank you 
for such a " diffusion of intelHgence," nor will your present 
education do much good to the poor starving masses. 

Inq. — Ah I but you 7nust give us time. It is only a few 
years since we began to educate the people. 

Theo. — And what, pray, has your Christian religion been 
doing ever since the fifteenth centur}^, once you acknowledge 
that the education of the masses has not been attempted 
till now — the very work, if ever there could be one, which 
a Christian — ^i.e., a Christ-following — church and people 
ought to perform ? 

Inq. — Well, you may be right; but 7iow — 

Theo. — Just let us consider this question of education 
from a broad standpoint, and I will prove to you that you 
are doing harm, not good, with many of your boasted im- 
provements. The schools for the poorer children, though 
far less useful than they ought to be, are good in contrast 



236 THE KEY TO THE SOPHY. 

with the vile surroundings to which they axe doomed by 
your modem society. The infusion of a little practical 
Theosophy would help a hundred times more in life the 
poor suffering masses than all this diffusion of useless intel- 
ligence. 

Inq. — But really — 

Theo. — Let me finish, please. You have opened a sub- 
ject on which we Theosophists feel deeply, and I must have 
my say. I quite agree that there is a great advantage to 
a small child bred in the slums, having the gutter for play- 
ground, and living amid continued coarseness of gesture and 
word, in being placed daily in a bright, clean school-room 
hung with pictures, and often gay with flowers. There it 
is taught to be clean, gentle, orderly ; there it learns to sing 
and to play ; has toys that awaken its intelligence ; learns 
to use its fingers deftly ; is spoken to with a smile instead 
of a frown ; is gently rebuked or coaxed instead of cursed. 
All this humanizes the children, arouses their brains, and 
renders them susceptible to intellectual and moral influ- 
ences. The schools are not all they might be and ought 
to be; but compared with the homes they are paradises; 
and they are slowly reacting on the homes. But while this 
is true of many of the board-schools, your system deserves 
the worst one can say of it. 

Inq. — So be it; go on, 

Theo. — What is the real object of modem education ? 
Is it to cultivate and develop the mind in the right direc- 
tion ; to teach the disinherited and hapless people to carry 
with fortitude the burden of life allotted them by Karma ; 
to strengthen their will ; to inculcate in them the love of 
one's neighbor and the feeling of mutual interdependence 
and brotherhood ; and thus to train and form the character 
for practical life ? Not a bit of it And yet these are un- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 237 

deniably the objects of all true education. No one denies 
it ; all your educationalists admit it, and talk very big indeed 
on the subject. But what is the practical result of their 
action ? Every young man and boy — nay, every one of 
the younger generation of schoolmasters — will answer, '' The 
object of modern education is to pass examinations " — a 
system not to develop right emulation, but to generate 
and breed jealousy, envy, hatred almost, in young people 
for one another, and thus train them for a life of ferocious 
selfishness and struggle for honors and emoluments instead 
of kindly feehng. 

Inq. — I must admit you a7'e right there. 

Theo. — And what are these examinations — the terror of 
modem boyhood and youth ? They are simply a method 
of classification by which the results of your school-teach- 
ing are tabulated. In other words, they form the practical 
application of the modern science method to the genus 
ho??w, qua intellection. Now science teaches that intellect 
is a result of the mechanical interaction of the brain-stuff; 
therefore it is only logical that modem education should 
be almost entirely mechanical — a sort of automatic machine 
for the fabrication of intellect by the ton. Very little ex- 
perience of examinations is enough to show that the edu- 
cation they produce is simply a training of the physical 
memory, and, sooner or later, all your schools will sink to 
this level. As to any real, sound cultivation of the thinking 
and reasoning power, it is simply impossible while every- 
thing has to be judged by the results as tested by competi- 
tive examinations. Again, school training is of the very 
greatest importance in forming character, especially in its 
moral bearing. Now, from first to last, your modern sys- 
tem is based on the so-called scientific revelations — the 
*' struggle for existence " and the *' survival of the fittest." 
All through his early life every man has these driven inta 



238 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

him by practical example and experience, as well as by 
direct teaching, till it is impossible to eradicate from his 
mind the idea that ''self" — the lower, personal, animal self 
— is the end-all and be-all of life. Here you get the great 
source of all the after-misery, crime, and heartless selfish- 
ness, which you admit as much as I do. Selfishness, as 
said over and over again, is the curse of humanity, and 
the prolific parent of all the evils and crimes in this life ; 
and it is your schools which are the hotbeds of such self- 
ishness. 

Inq. — That is all very fine as generalities^ but I should like 
a few facts ^ and to learfi also how this can be remedied, 

Theo. — Very well, I will try and satisfy you. There are 
three great divisions of scholastic establishments — board, 
middle-class, and public schools, running up the scale from 
the most grossly commercial to the idealistic classical, with 
many permutations and combinations. The practical com- 
mercial begets the modern side, and the ancient and ortho- 
dox classical reflects its heavy respectability even as far as 
the school-board pupil-teacher's estabhshments. Here we 
plainly see the scientific and material commercial supplant- 
ing the effete orthodox and classical. Neither is the reason 
very far to seek. The objects of this branch of education 
are, then, pounds, shillings, and pence, the summum bonum 
of the nineteenth century. Thus the energies generated by 
the brain-molecules of its adherents are all concentrated on 
one point, and are therefore, to some extent, an organized 
army of educated and speculative intellects of the minority 
of men, trained against the hosts of the ignorant, simple- 
minded masses doomed to be vampirized, lived and sat 
upon by their intellectually stronger brethren. Such train- 
ing is not only untheosophical ; it is simply unchristian. 
Result : the direct outcome of this branch of education is an 
overflooding of the market with money-making machines, 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 239 

with heartless, selfish men — animals — who have been most 
carefully trained to prey on their fellows and take advan- 
tage of the ignorance of their weaker brethren ! 

Inq. — Well^ but you cannot assert that of our great public 
schools^ at any rate, 

Theo. — Not exactly, it is true. But though the form is 
different, the animating spirit is the same — untheosophical 
and unchristian, whether Eton and Harrow turn out scien- 
tists or divines and theologians. ^ 

Inq. — Surely you do not niea^i to call Eton and Harrow 
^^ commerciar'? 

Theo. — No. Of course the classical system is above all 
things respectable^ and in the present day is productive of 
some good. It still remains the favorite at our great pub- 
lic schools, where not only an intellectual, but also a social 
education is obtainable. It is therefore of prime impor- 
tance that the dull boys of aristocratic and w^ealthy parents 
should go to such schools to meet the rest of the young 
life of the "blood" and money classes. But, unfortu- 
nately, there is a huge competition even for entrance ; for 
the moneyed classes are increasing, and poor but clever 
boys seek to enter the pubHc schools by the rich scholar- 
ships, both at the schools themselves and from them to the 
universities. 

Inq. — According to this view, the wealthier '' dullards ^^ 
have to work even harder than their poorer fellows. 

Theo. — It is so. But, strange to say, the faithful of the 
cult of the "' survival of the fittest " do not practise their 
creed ; for their whole exertion is to make the naturally 
unfit supplant the fit. Thus, by bribes of large sums of 
money, they allure the best teachers from their natural 
pupils to niechanicalize their naturally unfit progeny into 
professions which they uselessly overcrowd. 



240 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Inq. — And you attribute all this to what ? 

Theo. — All this is owing to the perniciousness of a system 
which turns out goods to order, irrespective of the natural 
proclivities and talents of the youth. The poor little candi- 
date for this progressive paradise of learning comes almost 
straight from the nursery to the treadmill of a preparatory 
school for sons of gentlemen. Here he is immediately seized 
upon by the workmen of the materio-intellectual factory, 
and crammed with Latin, French, and Greek accidence, 
dates and tables, so that if he have any natural genius it is 
rapidly squeezed out of him by the rollers of what Carlyle 
has so well called '' dead vocables." 

Inq. — But surely he is taught so??iething besides ^^ dead vo- 
cables^'* a7id much of that which may lead hi7n direct to The- 
osophy^ if not entirely i7ito the Theosophical Society ? 

Theo. — Not much. For of history he will attain only 
sufficient knowledge of his own particular nation to fit him 
with a steel armor of prejudice against all other peoples, 
and be steeped in the foul cesspools of chronicled national 
hate and bloodthirstiness ; and surely you would not call 
that — Theosophy ? 

Inq. — What are your further objections ? 

Theo. — Added to this is a smattering of selected, so 
called, bibUcal facts, from the study of which all intellect is 
eliminated. It is simply a memory lesson, the why of the 
teacher being a ivhy of circumstances and not of reason. 

Inq. — Yes; but I have heard you congratulate yourself at 
the ever-increasifig number of agnostics a7td atheists i?i our day^ 
so that it appears that even people trained in the syste7n you 
abuse so hea7^tily do lea7m to think and reason for themselves. 

Theo. — Yes ; but it is rather owing to a healthy reaction 
from that system than due to it. We immeasurably prefer 
agnostics, and even rank atheists, in our Society to bigots 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 241 

of whatever religion. An agnostic's mind is ever opened 
to the truth; whereas the latter blinds the bigot like the 
sun does an owl. The best — i.e., the most truth-loving, 
philanthropic, and honest — of our Fellows were, and are, 
agnostics and atheists, in the sense of disbehevers in 2, per- 
sonal God. But there are no free-thinking boys and girls, 
and generally early training will leave its mark behind in 
the shape of a cramped and distorted mind. A proper and 
sane system of education should produce the most vigor- 
ous and liberal mind, strictly trained in logical and accu- 
rate thought, and not in bhnd faith. How can you ever 
expect good results while you pervert the reasoning faculty 
of your children by bidding them believe in the miracles 
of the Bible on Sunday, while for the six other days of the 
week you teach them that such things are scientifically im- 
possible ? 

Inq. — What ivould yoii have^ then ? 

Theo. — If we had money we would found schools which 
would turn out something else than reading and writing 
candidates for starvation. Children should above all be 
taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, mutual char- 
ity, and, more than anything else, to think and reason for 
themselves. We would reduce the purely mechanical work 
of the memory to an absolute minimum, and devote the 
time to the development and training of the inner senses, 
faculties, and latent capacities. We would endeavor to 
deal with each child as a unit, and to educate it so as to 
produce the most harmonious and equal unfoldment of its 
powers, in order that its special aptitudes should find their 
full natiu"al development. We would aim at crea,ting free 
men and women — free intellectually, free morally ; unpreju- 
diced in all respects, and, above all things, unselfish. And 
we beHeve that much, if not all, of this could be obtained 
by proper and truly Theosophical education. 



242 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 



WHY, THEN, IS THERE SO MUCH PREJUDICE 
AGAINST THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY? 

Inq. — If Theosophy is even half of what you say, why 
should there exist such a terrible ill feeli^ig against it ? This 
is even more of a problem tha7i anything else, 

Theo. — It is ; but you must bear in mind how many 
powerful adversaries we have aroused ever since the for- 
mation of our Society. As I just said, if the Theosophical 
movement were one of those numerous modem crazes, as 
harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it would be 
simply laughed at— as it is now by those who still do not 
understand its real purport — and left severely alone. But 
it is nothing of the kind. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the 
most serious movement of this age, and one, moreover, 
which threatens the very life of most of the time-honored 
humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day — those evils 
which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imi- 
tators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle 
classes, while they positively crush and starve out of exis- 
tence the millions of the poor. Think of this, and you will 
easily understand the reason of such a relentless persecution 
by those others who, more observing and perspicacious, do 
see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it. 

Inq. — Do you mean to tell me that it is because a few have 
understood what Theosophy leads to, that they try to crush the 
movement ? But if Theosophy leads only to good, surely you 
cannot be prepared to utter such a terrible accusation of perfid- 
ious heartlessness and treachery even against those few ? 

Theo. — I am so prepared, on the contrary. I do not 
call the enemies we have had to battle with during the first 
nine or ten years of the Society's existence either powerful 
or dangerous, but only those who have arisen against us 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 243 

in the last three or four years. And these neither speak, 
write, nor preach against Theosophy, but work in silence 
and behind the backs of the fooHsh puppets who act as 
their visible marionettes. Yet, if invisible to most of the 
members of our Society, they are well known to the true 
founders and the protectors of our Society. But they 
must remain, for certain reasons, unnamed at present. 

Inq. — And are they known to many of you, or to yourself 
alone ? 

Theo. — I never said that / knew them ; I may or may 
not know them ; but I know of them, and this is sufficient ; 
and I defy them to do their worst. They may achieve 
great mischief and throw confusion into our ranks, espe- 
cially among the faint-hearted and those who can judge 
only by appearances. They will not crush the Society, do 
what they may. Apart from these truly dangerous enemies 
— dangerous, however, only to those Theosophists who are 
unworthy of the name, and whose place is rather outside 
than within the Theosophical Society — the number of our 
opponents is more than considerable. 

Inq. — I have heard many Theosophists speak of a ^^ power 
behind the Society''' and of certain *' Mahdtmds^^ mentioned 
also in Mr. Sinnetfs works, that are said to have founded the 
Society, to watch over and protect it, 

Theo. — You may laugh, but it is so. 



XIV. 



THE THEOSOPHICAL - MAhAtmAs." 



ARE THEY ''SPIRITS OF LIGHT'' OR ''GOBLINS 
DAMN'D " ; 

Inq. — Who are^ then, those whom you call your '^Mas- 
ters " / Some say they are '' spirits^' or some other kind of 
supernatural beings, while others call the7n " myths ^ 

Theo. — They are neither. I once heard one outsider 
say to another that they were a sort of *' male mermaids," 
whatever such a creature may be. But if you hsten to what 
people say you will never have a true conception of them. 
In the first place, they are living 7nen, born as we are born, 
and doomed to die like every other mortal. 

Inq. — Yes, but it is rumored that some of them are a thou- 
sand years old. Is this true ? 

Theo. — As true as the miraculous growth of hair on the 
head of Meredith's Shagpat. Truly, like the " Identical," 
no Theosophical Shaving has hitherto been able to crop it. 
The more we deny them, the more we try to set people 
right, the more absurd do the inventions become. I have 
heard of Methuselah being nine hundred and sixty-nine 
years old; but, not being forced to believe in it, have 
laughed at the statement, for which I was forthwith re- 
garded by many as a blasphemous heretic. 

244 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 245 

Inq. — Seriously^ though^ do they outlive the ordinary age 
of men ? 

Theo. — What do you call the ordinary age ? I remem- 
ber reading in the Laficet of a Mexican who was almost one 
hundred and ninety years old ; but I have never heard of 
mortal man, layman or Adept, who could live even half the 
years allotted to Methuselah. Some Adepts do exceed, by 
a good deal, what you would call the ordinary age ; yet 
there is nothing miraculous in it, and very few of them care 
to live very long. 

Inq. — But what does the word '^ Mahdtmd'' really mean? 

Theo. — Simply '' great soul " — great through moral ele- 
vation and intellectual attainment. If the title of "great" 
is given to a drunken soldier like Alexander, why should 
we not call those '' great " who have achieved far greater 
conquests in Nature's secrets than Alexander ever did on 
the field of battle ? Besides, the term is an Indian and a 
very old word. 

Inq. — And why do you call the77i '* Masters'' ? 

Theo. — We call them *' Masters " because they are our 
teachers, and because from them we have derived all the 
Theosophical truths, however inadequately some of us 
may have expressed, and others understood, them. They 
are men of great learning and still greater holiness of life, 
whom we term Initiates. They are not ascetics in the 
ordinary sense, though they certainly remain apart from 
the turmoil and strife of your Western world. 

Inq. — But is it not selfish thus to isolate themselves ? 

Theo. — Where is the selfishness ? Does not the fate of 
the Theosophical Society sufficiently prove that the world 
is neither ready to recognize them nor to profit by their 
teaching ? Of what use would Professor Clerk Maxwell 
have been to instruct a class of little boys in their multipli- 



246 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

cation table ? Besides, they isolate themselves only from 
the West. In their own country they go about as publicly 
as other people do. 

Inq. — Do you 7iot ascribe to them supernatural powers ? 

Theo. — We believe in nothing supernatural, as I have 
told you already. Had Edison lived and invented his 
phonograph two hundred years ago he would most prob- 
ably have been burned along with it, and the whole attrib- 
uted to the devil. The powers which they exercise are 
simply the development of potencies lying latent in every 
man and woman, and the existence of which even official 
science begins to recognize. 

Inq. — Is it true that these 7ne7i inspire some of your writers^ 
and that many, if not all, of your Theosophical works were 
writtefi under their dictation ? 

Theo. — Some of them have done so. There are pas- 
sages entirely dictated by them verbatim ; but in most cases 
they only inspire the ideas, and leave the literary form to 
the writers. 

Inq. — But this in itself is miraculous ; is, in fact, a miracle. 
How can they do it ? 

Theo. — My dear sir, you are laboring under a great mis- 
take, and it is science itself that will refute yoiu" arguments 
at no distant day. Why should it be a "miracle," as you 
call it ? A miracle is supposed to mean some operation 
which is supernatural, whereas there is really nothing above 
or beyond Nature and Nature's laws. Among the many 
forms of the '' miracle " which have come under modem 
scientific recognition there is hypnotism ; and one phase of 
its power is known as '' suggestion," a form of thought- 
transference, which has been successfully used in combating 
particular physical diseases, etc. The time is not far dis- 
tant when the world of science will be forced to acknow- 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 247 

ledge that there exists as much interaction between one 
mind and another, no matter at what distance, as between 
one body and another in closest contact. When two minds 
are sympathetically related, and the instruments through 
which they function are tuned to respond magnetically 
and electrically to one another, there is nothing which will 
prevent the transmission of thoughts from one to the other 
at will ; for since the mind is not of such a tangible nature 
that distance can divide it from the subject of its contem- 
plation, it follows that the only difference that can exist be- 
tween two minds is a difference of state. So if this latter 
hindrance is overcome, w^here is the *' miracle" of thought- 
transference, at whatever distance ? 

Inq. — But you will admit that hypnotism does ?wthing so 
miraculous or wonderful as that ? 

Theo. — On the contrary, it is a well-established fact 
that a hypnotist can affect the brain of his subject so far 
as to produce an expression of his own thoughts, and even 
his words, through the organism of his subject ; and al- 
though the phenomena attaching to this method of actual 
thought-transference are as yet few in number, no one, I 
presume, will undertake to say how far their action may 
extend in the future, when the laws that govern their pro- 
duction are more scientifically established. And so, if such 
results can be produced by the knowledge of the mere 
rudiments of hypnotism, what can prevent the Adept in 
psychic and spiritual powers from producing results w^hich, 
with your present limited knowledge of these laws, you are 
inclined to call " miraculous " ? 

Inq. — Then why do not our physicians experiment and try 
if they could not do as much ? * 

* Such, for instance, as Professor Bemheim and Dr. C. Lloyd Tuckey, of England ; 
Professors Beaunis and Li^geois, of Nancy ; Delboeuf, of Liege ; Burot and Bourru, 
of Rochefort ; Fontain and Sigard, of Bordeaux ; Forel, of Ziirich ; and Drs. Despine, 



248 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Theo. — Because, first of all, they are not Adepts, with a 
thorough understanding of the secrets and laws of psychic 
and spiritual realms, but materialists, afraid to step outside 
the narrow groove of matter ; and secondly, because they 
7niist fail at present, and, indeed, until they are brought to 
acknowledge that such powers are attainable. 

Inq. — And could they be taught ? 

Theo. — Not unless they were first of all prepared, by 
having the materialistic dross they have accumulated in 
their brains swept away to the very last atom. 

Inq. — This is very interesting. Tell me^ have the Adepts 
thus inspired or dictated to many of your Theosophists ? 

Theo. — No ; on the contrary, to very few. Such opera- 
tions require special conditions. An unscrupulous but 
skilled Adept of the " Black Brotherhood " — ''' Brothers of 
the Shadow," and Dugpas, we call them — has far less diffi- 
culties to labor under. For, having no laws of a spiritual 
nature to trammel his actions, such a Dugpa sorcerer will 
most unceremoniously obtain control over any mind, and 
subject it entirely to his evil powers. But our Masters will 
never do that. They have no right — if they would escape 
falling into '' black magic " — to obtain entire mastery over 
any one's immortal Ego, and can therefore act only on the 
physical and psychic nature of the subject, leaving thereby 
the free will of the latter wholly undisturbed. Hence, un- 
less a person has been brought into psychic relationship 
with the Masters, and is assisted by virtue of his full faith 
in and devotion to his teachers, the latter, whenever trans- 
mitting their thoughts to one with whom these conditions 
are not fulfilled, experience great difficulties in penetrating 
into the cloudy chaos of that person's sphere. But this is 

of Marseilles; Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, of Amsterdam; Wetterstrand, of 
Stockholm ; Schrenck-Notzing, of Leipzig ; and many other physicians and writers 
of eminence. 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 249 

no place to treat of a subject of this nature. Suffice it to 
say that if the power exists, then there are Intelligences 
(embodied or disembodied) which guide this power, and liv- 
ing, conscious instruments through whom it is transmitted 
and by whom it is received. We have only to beware of 
'' black magic." 

Inq. — But what do you really mean by " black magic "/ 

Theo. — Simply abuse of psychic powers, or of any 
secret of Nature ; the fact of applying to selfish and sinful 
ends the powers of Occultism. A hypnotizer who, taking 
advantage of his powers of " suggestion," forced a subject 
to steal or murder would be called by us a ''black magi- 
cian." The famous ''rejuvenating system" of Dr. Brown- 
S6quard, of Paris, through a loathsome animal injection 
into human blood — a discovery all the medical papers of 
Europe are now discussing — if true, is unconscious black 
magic. 

Inq. — But this is medieval belief in witchcraft and sorcery / 
Even the law itself has ceased to believe in such things, 

Theo. — So much the worse for the law, as it has been 
led, through such lack of discrimination, into committing 
more than one judiciary mistake and crime. It is the term 
alone that frightens you with its "superstitious" ring in it. 
Would not law punish an abuse of hypnotic powers, as I 
just mentioned ? Nay, it has so punished it already in 
France and Germany ; yet it would indignantly deny that 
it applied punishment to a crime of evident "sorcery.*' 
You cannot believe in the efficacy and reality of the 
powers of suggestion by physicians and mesmerizers or 
hypnotizers, and then refuse to beHeve in the same powers 
when used for evil motives. And if you do, then you be- 
lieve in " sorcery " ! You cannot believe in good and dis- 
believe in evil, accept genuine money and refuse to credit 



250 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

such a thing as false coin. Nothing can exist without its 
contrast ; and no day, no light, no good, could have any 
representation as such in your consciousness were there no 
night, no darkness, no evil, to ojffset and contrast them. 

Inq. — Indeed J I have known men who, while thoroughly 
believing in that which you call great psychic or magic powers^ 
laughed at the very mention of witchcraft and sorcery. 

Theo.— What does it prove ? Simply that they are 

illogical. So much the worse for them, again. And we, 

knowing as we do of the existence of good and holy Adepts, 

believe as thoroughly in the existence of bad and unholy 

fj^ ^ Adepts, or — Dugpas. 

Inq. — But if the Masters exist ^ why do they not come out 
before all men and refute once for all the many charges which 
are made against Madame Blavatsky and the Society ? 

Theo. — What charges ? 

Inq. — That they do not exist ^ and that she has invented 
them. Does not all this injure her reputatio7i ? 

Theo. — In what way can such an accusation injure her 
in reality ? Did she ever make money on their presumed 
existence, or derive benefit or fame therefrom ? I answer 
that she has gained only insults, abuse, and calumnies, 
which would have been very painful had she not learned 
long ago to remain perfectly indifferent to such false 
charges. For what does it amount to after all ? Why, 
to an implied compliment, which, if the fools, her accusers, 
were not carried away by their blind hatred, they would 
have thought twice before uttering. To say that she has 
invented the Masters comes to this: that she must have 
invented every bit of philosophy that has ever been given 
out in Theosophical literature. She must be the author of 
the letters from which Esoteric Buddhism was written ; the 
sole inventor of every tenet found in TJie Secret Doctrine^ 



THE KEY TO TIIEOSOPHY. 251 

which, if the world were just, would be recognized as sup- 
plying many of the missing links of science, as will be dis- 
covered a hundred years hence. By saying what they do 
they are also giving her the credit of being far cleverer than 
the hundreds of men (many very clever and not a few sci- 
entific men) who believe in what she says — inasmuch as 
she must have fooled them all ! If they speak the truth, 
then she must be several Mahatmas rolled into one, hke a 
nest of Chinese boxes. 

Inq. — They say that from beginning to end they were a ro- 
mance which Madame Blavatsky has woven frofn her own 
brain, 

Theo. — Well, she might have done many things less 
clever than this. At any rate, we have not the slightest 
objection to this theory. As she always says now, she al- 
most prefers that people should not believe in the Masters. 
She declares openly that she would rather people should 
seriously think that the only " Mahatma-land " is the gray 
matter of her brain, and that, in short, she has evolved them 
out of the depths of her own inner consciousness, than that 
their names and grand ideal should be so infamously dese- 
crated as they are at present. At first she used to protest 
indignantly against any doubts as to their existence. Now 
she never goes out of her way to prove or disprove it. Let 
people think what they like. 

Inq. — But if you have such wise and good men to guide 
the Society^ how is it that so many mistakes have been made ? 

Theo. — The Masters do not guide the Society — not even 
the founders — and no one has ever asserted that they did ; 
they only watch over and protect it. This is amply proved 
by the fact that no mistakes have been able to cripple it, 
and no scandals from within, nor the most damaging at- 
tacks from without, have been able to overthrow it. The 



252 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Masters look at tlie future, not at the present, and every 
mistake is so much more accumulated wisdom for days to 
come. That other *' Master " who sent out the man with 
the five talents did not tell him how to double them, nor 
did he prevent the foolish servant from burying his one tal- 
ent in the earth. Each must acquire wisdom by his own 
experience and merits. The Christian churches, who claim 
a far higher Master, the very Holy Ghost itself, have ever 
been, and are still, guilty not only of '' mistakes," but of a 
series of bloody crimes throughout the ages. Yet no Chris- 
tian would deny, for all that, his belief in that Master, I 
suppose, although his existence is far more hypothetical 
than that of the Mahatmas, as no one has ever seen the 
Holy Ghost and his guidance of the church ; moreover, their 
own ecclesiastical history distinctly contradicts. Errare 
humanum est. Let us return to our subject. 



THE ABUSE OF SACRED NAMES AND TERMS, 

Inq. — Then what I have heard, namely, that many of 
your Theosophical writers claim to have been inspired by these 
Masters, or to have seen and conversed with them, is not true ? 

Theo. — It may or it may not be true. How can I tell ? 
The burden of proof rests with them. Some of them — a 
few, very few indeed — have either distinctly hed or were 
hallucinated when boasting of such inspiration; others 
were truly inspired by great Adepts. The tree is known 
by its fruits ; and as all Theosophists have to be judged 
by their deeds and not by what they write or say, so all 
Theosophical books must be accepted on their merits, and 
not according to any claim to authority which they may 
put forward. 

Inq. — But would Madame Blavatsky apply this to her own 
works — The Secret Doctrine, for instance ? 



THE KEY TO THEO SOPHY, 253 

Theo. — Certainly ; she says expressly in the preface that 
she gives out the doctrines that she has learned from the 
Masters, but claims no inspiration whatever for what she 
has lately written. As for our best Theosophists, they 
would also, in this case, far rather that the names of the 
Masters had never been mixed up with our books in any 
way. With few exceptions, most of such works are not 
only imperfect, but positively erroneous and misleading. 
Great are the desecrations to which the names of two of 
the Masters have been subjected. There is hardly a 
medium who has not claimed to have seen them. Every 
bogus swindling society, for commercial purposes, now 
claims to be guided and directed by '* Masters," often sup- 
posed to be far higher than ours ! Many and heavy are 
the sins of those who have advanced these claims, prompted 
either by desire for lucre, vanity, or irresponsible medium- 
ship. Many persons have been plundered of their money 
by such societies, which offer to sell the secrets of power, 
knowledge, and spiritual truth for worthless gold. Worst 
of all, the sacred names of Occultism and the holy keepers 
thereof have been dragged in this filthy mire, polluted by 
being associated with sordid motives and immoral practices, 
while thousands of men have been held back from the path 
of truth and light through the discredit and evil report 
which such shams, swindles, and frauds have brought upon 
the whole subject. I say again, every earnest Theosophist 
regrets to-day, from the bottom of his heart, that these 
sacred names and things have ever been mentioned before 
the pubUc, and fervently wishes that they had been kept 
secret within a small circle of trusted and devoted friends. 



CONCLUSION. 



THE FUTURE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 

Inq. — Tell me^ what do you expect for Theosophy i?i the 
future ? 

Theo. — If you speak of Theosophy, I answer that, as 
it has existed eternally throughout the endless cycles upon 
cycles of the past, so it will ever exist throughout the in- 
finitudes of the futiure, because Theosophy is synonymous 
with Everlasting Truth. 

Inq. — Pardon me ; I mea7it to ask you rather about the 
prospects of the Theosophical Society, 

Theo. — Its future will depend almost entirely upon the 
degree of selflessness, earnestness, devotion, and, last but 
not least, on the amount of knowledge and wisdom pos- 
sessed by those members on whom it will fall to carry on 
the work and to direct the Society after the death of the 
founders. 

Inq. — I quite see the importance of their being selfless and 
devoted^ but I do not quite grasp how their knowledge can be 
as vital a factor in the question as these other qualities. Surely 
the literature which already exists^ and to which constant ad- 
ditions are still being made, ought to be sufficient, 

Theo. — I do not refer to technical knowledge of the 
esoteric doctrine, though that is most important; I spoke 

254 



THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 255 

rather of the great need which our successors in the gui- 
dance of the Society will have of unbiased and clear judg- 
ment. Every such attempt as the Theosophical Society 
has hitherto ended in failure, because, sooner or later, it 
has degenerated into a sect, set up hard-and-fast dogmas 
of its own, and so lost by imperceptible degrees that vital- 
ity which hving truth alone can impart. You must remem- 
ber that all our members have been bred and born in some 
creed or religion ; that all are more or less of their genera- 
tion, both physically and mentally ; and consequently that 
their judgment is but too likely to be warped and uncon- 
sciously biased by some or all of these influences. If, then, 
they cannot be freed from such inherent bias, or at least 
taught to recognize it instantly and so avoid being led 
away by it, the result can only be that the Society will 
drift off on to some sand-bank of thought or another, and 
there remain, a stranded carcass, to molder and die. 

Inq. — But if this danger be averted? 

Theo. — Then the Society will Hve on into and through 
the twentieth cen^tury. It will gradually leaven and perme- 
ate the great mass of thinking and intelligent people with 
its large-minded and noble ideas of religion, duty, and phi- 
lanthropy. Slowly but surely it will burst asunder the iron 
fetters of creeds and dogmas, of social and caste preju- 
dices; it will break down racial and national antipathies 
and barriers, and will open the way to the practical realiza- 
tion of the Brotherhood of all men. Through its teaching, 
through the philosophy which it has rendered accessible 
and intelligible to the modem mind, the West will learn 
to imderstand and appreciate the East at its true value. 
Further, the development of the psychic powers and facul- 
ties, the premonitory symptoms of which are already visible 
in America, will proceed healthily and normally. Mankind 
will be saved from the terrible dangers, both mental and 



236 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

bodily, which are inevitable when that unfolding takes 
place, as it threatens to do, in a hotbed of selfishness and 
all evil passions. Man's mental and psychic growth will 
proceed in harmony with his moral improvement, while his 
material surroundings will reflect the peace and fraternal 
good will which will reign in his mind, instead of the dis- 
cord and strife which are everywhere apparent around us 
to-day. 

Inq. — A truly delightful picture I But tell me^ do you 
really expect all this to be accomplished in one shof^t century ? 

Theo. — Scarcely. But I must tell you that during the 
last quarter of every hundred years an attempt is made by 
those Masters of whom I have spoken to help on the 
spiritual progress of humanity in a marked and definite 
way. Toward the close of each century you will invari- 
ably find that an outpouring or upheaval of spirituality — 
or call it Mysticism, if you prefer — has taken place. Some 
one or more persons have appeared in the world as their 
agents, and a greater or less amount of occult knowledge 
and teaching has been given out. If you care to do so, 
you can trace these movements back, century by century, 
as far as our detailed historical records extend. 

Inq. — But how does this bear o?t the future of the Theo- 
sophical Society ? 

Theo. — If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, 
succeeds better than its predecessors have done, then it will 
be in existence as an organized, living, and healthy body 
when the time comes for the effort of the twentieth century. 
The general condition of men's minds and hearts will have 
been improved and purified by the spread of its teachings, 
and, as I have said, their prejudices and dogmatic illusions 
will have been, to some extent at least, removed. Not 
only so, but besides a large and accessible hterature ready 



THE KEY TO THEOSOFHY, 257 

to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and 
united body of people ready to welcome the new torch- 
bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared 
for his message, a language ready for him in which to 
clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting 
his arrival, which will remove the merely mechanical, mate- 
rial obstacles and difficulties from his path. Think how 
much one to whom such an opportunity is given could ac- 
complish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theo- 
sophical Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen 
years, without any of these advantages, and surrounded 
by hosts of hindrances which would not hamper the new 
leader. Consider all this, and then tell me whether I am 
too sanguine when I say that if the Theosophical Society 
survives and lives true to its mission, to its original impulses, 
through the next hundred years — tell me, I say, if I go too 
far in asserting that earth will be a heaven in the twenty- 
first century in comparison with what it is now ! 



GLOSSARY. 



259 



GLOSSARY. 



Absoluteness. When predicated of the Universal Prin- 
ciple, it denotes an abstraction, which is more correct and 
logical than to apply the adjective ''absolute" to that 
which can have neither attributes nor limitations. 

Adam Kadmon {Ueb.). Archetypal Man, humanity. 
The '' heavenly Man " not fallen into sin. Kabalists refer 
it to the ten Sephiroth on the plane of human perception. 
In the Kabalah Adam Kadmon is the manifested logos cor- 
responding to our third logos, the unmanifested being the 
first paradigmic, ideal Man, and symbolizing the universe /// 
abscondito, or in its '' privation " in the Aristotelian sense. 
The first logos is the ** light of the world," the second and 
the third its gradually deepening shadows. 

Adept [Lat. adepttis). In Occultism, one who has reached 
the stage of initiation and become a Master in the science 
of Esoteric Philosophy. 

i^Ether {Gr.). With the ancients, the divine luminifer- 
ous substance which pervades the whole universe ; the 
" garment " of the supreme deity, Zeus or Jupiter. With 
the moderns, ether, for the meaning of which, in physics 
and chemistry, see Webster's or some other dictionary. 
In esotericism aether is the third principle of the cosmic 

261 



262 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

septenary, matter (earth) being the lowest, and dkdsha the 
highest. 

Agathon [Gr,), Plato's supreme deity — lit., the *' Good." 
Our dlaya or the " soul of the world." 

Agnostic. A word first used by Professor Huxley to in- 
dicate one who believes nothing which cannot be demon- 
strated by the senses. 

Ahankara (&//^.). The conception of *'I," self-con- 
sciousness or self-identity ; the ''I," or egoistical and maya- 
vic principle in man, due to our ignorance, which separates 
our '' I " from the Universal One Self, Personality ; ego- 
ism also. 

Ain Suph {Heb.), The ^'boundless'' or "limitless" 
Deity emanating and extending. Ain Suph is also written 
En Soph and Ain Soph ; for no one, not even the rabbis, 
is quite sure of their vowxls. In the religious metaphysics 
of the old Hebrew philosophers the One Principle was an 
abstraction like Farabrahman, though modern Kabalists 
have succeeded by mere dint of sophistry and paradoxes 
in making a '' Supreme God " of it, and nothing higher. 
But with the early Chaldean Kabalists Ain Suph was 
" without form or being," with '' no hkeness with anything 
else." (Franck's Die Kabbala^ p. 126.) That Ain Suph 
has never been considered as the "creator" is proved con- 
clusively by the fact that such an orthodox Jew as Philo 
gives the name of " creator " to the logos ^ who stands next 
the " Limitless One " and is the ''second God." "The sec- 
ond God is in its [Ain Suph's] wisdom," says Philo. Deity 
is No-T/img ; it is nameless, and therefore called Ain Suph 
— the word ain meaning nothing, (See also Franck, ibid,, 

V- I53-) 

Alchemy (in Arabic Ul-Khemi) is, as the name sug- 
gests, the chemistry of nature. Ul-Khemi or Al-Kimia, 
however, is really an Arabianized word, taken from the 
Greek X'^/^^^^^? ^^om X"f^^^» '' juice," extracted from a plant. 



GLOSSARY. 263 

Alchemy deals with the finer forces of Nature and the 
various conditions of matter in which they are found to 
operate. Seeking under the veil of language more or less 
artificial to convey to the uninitiated so much of the inys- 
terium magnwn as is safe in the hands of a selfish world, 
the Alchemist postulates as his first principle the existence 
of a certain universal solve7it in the homogeneous substance 
from which the elements were evolved, which substance 
he calls pure gold, or siimrman materice. This solvent, also 
called me7istruum universale^ possesses the power of remov- 
ing all the seeds of disease from the human body, of re- 
newing youth and prolonging life. Such is the lapis phi- 
losophorum (philosopher's stone). Alchemy first penetrated 
into Europe through Geber, the great Arabian sage and 
philosopher, in the eighth century of our era; but it was 
known and practised long ages ago in China and Egypt. 
Numerous papyri on Alchemy, and other proofs that it 
was the favorite study of kings and priests, have been ex- 
humed, and preserved under the generic name of Hermetic 
treatises. Alchemy is studied under three distinct aspects, 
which admit of many different interpretations, viz., the cos- 
mic, the human, and the terrestrial. 

These three methods were typified under the three al- 
chemical properties — sulphur, mercury, and salt. Differ- 
ent writers have stated that there are three, seven, ten, and 
twelve processes, respectively ; but they are all agreed there 
is but one object in Alchemy, which is to transmute gross 
metals into pure gold. But what that gold really is very 
few people understand correctly. No doubt there is such 
a thing in Nature as transmutation of the baser metal into 
the nobler; but this is only one aspect of Alchemy — the 
terrestrial or purely material, for we see the same process 
taking place in the bowels of the earth. Yet, besides and 
beyond this interpretation, there is in Alchemy a symbol- 
ical meaning, purely psychic and spiritual. While the 



264 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Kabalist-Alchemist seeks for the realization of the former, 
the Occultist- Alchemist, spurm'ng the gold of the earth, gives 
all his attention to, and directs his efforts only toward, the 
transmutation of the baser quaternary into the divine upper 
trinity of man, which, when finally blended, are one. The 
spiritual, mental, psychic, and physical planes of human 
existence are in Alchemy compared to the four elements, 
fire, air, water, and earth, and are each capable of a three- 
fold constitution, i.e., fixed, unstable, and volatile. Little 
or nothing is known by the world concerning the origin of 
this archaic branch of philosophy ; but it is certain that it 
antedates the construction of any known zodiac, and, as 
dealing with the personified forces of Nature, probably also 
any of the mythologies of the world. Nor is there any 
doubt that the true secrets of transmutation (on the physical 
plane) were known in days of old, and lost before the dawn 
of the so-called historical period. Modern chemistry owes 
its best fundamental discoveries to Alchemy ; but regard- 
less of the undeniable truism of the latter that there is but 
one element in the universe, chemistry^ placed metals in the 
class of elements, and is only now beginning to find out 
its gross mistake. Even some encyclopedists are forced to 
confess that if most of the accounts of transmutation are 
fraud or delusion, '' yet some of them are accompanied by 
testimony which reorders them probable. By means of the 
galvanic battery even the alkalis have been discovered to 
have a metallic basis. The possibility of obtaining metal 
from other substances which contain the ingredients com- 
posing it, of changing one metal i?ito another, , . . must 
therefore be left undecided. Nor are all Alchemists to be 
considered impostors. Many have labored under the con- 
viction of obtaining their object with indefatigable patience 
and purity of heart, which is soundly recommended by 
Alchemists as the principal requisite for the success of 
their labors." 



GLOSSARY, 265 

Alexandrian Philosophers (or School). This famous 
school arose in Alexandria (Egypt), which was for long 
ages a seat of learning and philosophy. It was famous for 
its library, founded by Ptolemy Soter at the very beginning 
of his reign (Ptolemy died in 283 B.C.) — a library which 
once boasted seven hundred thousand rolls or volumes 
(Aulus Gellius) ; for its museum, the first real academy of 
sciences and arts ; for its world-renowned scholars, such 
as Euclid, the father of scientific geometry, Apollonius of 
Perga, the author of the still extant work on Conic Sections, 
Nicomachus, the arithmetician ; for astronomers, natiu-al 
philosophers, anatomists such as Herophilus and Erasis- 
tratus, physicians, musicians, artists, etc. But it became 
still more famous for its Eclectic or New-Platonic school, 
founded by Ammonius Saccas in 173 a.d., whose disciples 
were Origen, Plotinus, and many other men now famous 
in history. The most celebrated schools of the Gnostics 
had their origin in Alexandria. Philo Judaeus, Josephus, 
lambhchus, Porphyry, Clement of Alexandria, Eratosthenes 
the astronomer, Hypatia the virgin philosopher, and num- 
berless other stars of second magnitude, all belonged at 
various times to these great schools, and helped to make 
of Alexandria one of the most justly renowned seats of 
learning that the world has ever produced. 

Altruism. From alter ^ other. A quality opposed to 
egoism. Actions tending to do good to others, regardless 
of self. 

Ammonius Saccas. A great and good philosopher 
who lived in Alexandria between the second and third cen- 
turies of our era, the founder of the Neoplatonic school of 
the Philaletheians or ''lovers of truth." He was of poor 
birth and bom of Christian parents, but endowed with such 
prominent, almost divine goodness as to be called Theodi- 
daktos, the " God-taught." He honored that which was 
good in Christianity, but broke with it and the churches at 



266 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

an early age, being unable to find in it any superiority over 
the old religions. 

Analogeticists. The disciples of Ammonius Saccas, 
so called because of their practice of interpreting all sacred 
legends, myths, and mysteries by a principle of analogy 
and correspondence, which rule is now found in the Kaba- 
listic system, and preeminently so in the schools of Esoteric 
Philosophy in the East. (See ''The Twelve Signs of the 
Zodiac,'* by T. Subba Row, in Five Years of Theosophy,) 

Ananda {Sans!). Bliss, joy, felicity, happiness. The 
name of a favorite disciple of Gautama, the Lord Buddha. 

Anaxagoras. A famous Ionian philosopher who lived 
500 B.C., studied philosophy under Anaximenes of Miletus, 
and settled, in the days of Pericles, at Athens. Socrates, 
Euripides, Archelaus, and other distinguished men and 
philosophers were among his disciples and pupils. He was 
a most learned astronomer, and was one of the first to ex- 
plain openly that which was taught secretly by Pythagoras, 
viz., the movements of the planets, the eclipses of the sun 
and moon, etc. It was he who taught the theory of chaos, 
on the principle that ''nothing comes from nothing" (ex 
nihilo nihil fit) \ and of atoms as the underlying essence 
and substance of all bodies, " of the same nature as the 
bodies which they formed." These atoms, he taught, were 
primarily put in motion by nous (universal intelligence, the 
mahat of the Hindus), which nous is an immaterial, eternal, 
spiritual entity ; by this combination the world was formed, 
the material gross bodies sinking down, and the ethereal 
atoms (or fiery ether) rising and spreading in the upper 
celestial regions. Antedating modern science by over two 
thousand years, he taught that the stars were of the same 
material as our earth, and the sun a glowing mass; that 
the moon was a dark, uninhabitable body, receiving its hght 
from the sun; and beyond the aforesaid science he con- 
fessed himself thoroughly convinced that the real existence 



GLOSSARY. 267 

of things perceived by our senses could not be demonstrably 
proved. He died in exile at Lampsacus, at the age of 
seventy-two. 

Anima Mundi {Lat). The ''soul of the world," the 
same as the dlaya of the Northern Buddhists ; the divine 
essence which pervades, permeates, animates, and informs 
all things, from the smallest atom of matter to man and 
god. It is in a sense " the seven-skinned Mother " of the 
stanzas in The Secret Doctrine ; the essence of seven planes 
of sentiency, consciousness, and differentiation, both moral 
and physical. In its highest aspect it is nirvana ; in its 
lowest, the astral light. It was feminine with the Gnos- 
tics, the early Christians, and the Nazarenes ; bisexual with 
other sects, who considered it only in its four lower planes, 
of igneous and ethereal nature in the objective world of 
forms, and divine and spiritual in its three higher planes. 
When it is said that every human soul was born by detach- 
ing itself from the a7ii??ia mundi, it is meant, esoterically, 
that our higher Egos are of an essence identical with //, 
and that mahat is a radiation of the ever unknown universal 
Absolute. 

Anoia {Gr.\ *' Want of understanding,'* ''folly.'' The 
term applied by Plato and others to the lower Manas 
when too closely allied with Kama, which is characterized 
by irrationality {anoia). The Greek anoia or ag?ioia is evi- 
dently a derivative of the Sanskrit ajiidna (phonetically, 
agnydna), or ignorance, irrationality, and absence of know- 
ledge. 

Anthropomorphism. From the Greek anthropos^ 
man. The act of endowing God or the gods with a human 
form and human attributes or quaHties. 

Anugita i^Sans,), A Upanishad, using the term in a 
general sense. One of the philosophical treatises in the 
Mahdbhdrata, the great Indian epic. A very occult treatise. 
It is translated in " The Sacred Books of the East " series. 



268 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

Apollo Belvedere. Of all the ancient statues of Apollo 
— the son of Jupiter and Latona, called Phoebus, Helios, 
the Radiant, and the Sun — the best and most perfect is that 
of this name, which is in the Belvedere Gallery in the Vati- 
can at Rome. It is called the Pythian Apollo, as the god 
is represented in the moment of his victory over the serpent 
Python. The statue was found in the ruins of Antium in 

1503- 

Apollonius of Tyana. A wonderful philosopher bom 
in Cappadocia about the beginning of the first century ; an 
ardent Pythagorean, who studied the Phenician sciences 
under Euthydemus, and Pythagorean philosophy and other 
subjects under Euxenus of Heraclea. According to the 
tenets of the Pythagorean school, he remained a vegetarian 
the whole of his long life, ate only fruit and herbs, drank 
no wine, wore vestments made only of plant-fibers, walked 
barefooted, and let his hair grow to the full length, as all 
the Initiates have done before and after him. He was initi- 
ated by the priests of the temple of ^sculapius (Asklepios) 
at ^gae, and learned many of the '^ miracles " for healing 
the sick wrought by the god of medicine. Having prepared 
himself for a higher initiation by a silence of five years, and 
by travel — visiting Antioch, Ephesus, and Pamphylia, and 
other parts — he repaired via Babylon to India, alone, all 
his disciples having abandoned him, as they feared to go 
to the ''land of enchantments." A casual disciple, Damis, 
whom he met on the way, accompanied him, however, on 
his travels. At Babylon he was initiated by the Chaldees 
and Magi, according to Damis, whose narrative was copied 
by one named Philostratus one hundred years later.* After 
his return from India he showed himself a true Initiate in 
that the pestilence, earthquakes, deaths of kings, and other 
events which he prophesied, duly happened. 

At Lesbos the priests of Orpheus became jealous of him 
and refused to initiate him into their peculiar mysteries, 



GLOSSARY. 269 

though they did so several years later. He preached to the 
people of Athens and other states the purest and noblest 
ethics, and the phenomena he produced were as wonderful 
as they were numerous and well authenticated. " How is 
it," inquires Justin Martyr, in dismay — " how is it that the 
talismans {telesmata) of Apollonius have power? — for they 
prevent, as we see, the fury of the waves, and the violence 
of the winds, and the attacks of wild beasts; and while 
our Lord's miracles are preserved by tradition alone, those of 
Apollonius are most numerous, and actually maytifested in 
present facts ? ^' [Quest., xxiv.) But an answer is easily 
found to this in the fact that, after crossing the Hindu- 
Koosh, Apollonius had been directed by a king to the 
abode of the sages, whose abode it may be to this day, and 
who taught him their unsurpassed knowledge. His dia- 
logues with the Corinthian Menippus give us truly the eso- 
teric catechism, and disclose (when understood) many an 
important mystery of Nature. Apollonius was the friend, 
correspondent, and guest of kings and queens, and no 
wonderful or '* magic" powers are better attested than his. 
Toward the close of his long and wonderful Hfe he opened 
an esoteric school at Ephesus, and died at the ripe old age 
of one hundred years. 

Archangel. Highest, supreme angel. From the two 
Greek words, arch, first, and angelos, messenger. 

Arhat {Sans.). Also pronounced and written ardhat, 
arhan, rahat, etc. The '^ worthy one " ; a perfected drya; 
one exempt from reincarnation, ''deserving divine honors." 
This was the name first given to the Jain, and subsequently 
to the Buddhist holy men initiated into the esoteric mys- 
teries. The Arhat is one who has entered the last and high- 
est path, and is thus emancipated from rebirth. 

Arians. The followers of Arius, a presbyter of the 
church in Alexandria in the fourth century. One who 
holds that Christ is a created and human being, inferior to 



270 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

God the Father, though a grand and noble man, a true 
Adept, versed in all the divine mysteries. 

Aristobulus. An Alexandrian writer and an obscure 
philosopher. A Jew who tried to prove that Aristotle ex- 
plained the esoteric thoughts of Moses. 

Aryan. Lit., '' the holy." Those who had mastered 
the *' noble truths" [drya-satydni) and entered the "noble 
path** \arya-7ndrga) to nirvd7ta or moksha, the great "four- 
fold " path. They were originally known as Rishis ; but 
now the name has become the epithet of a race, and our 
Orientahsts, depriving the Hindu Brahmans of their birth- 
right, have made Aryans of all Europeans. Since, in eso- 
tericism, the four paths or stages can only be entered through 
great spiritual development and " growth in hoUness," they 
are called the drya-77idrga. The degrees of arhatship, called 
respectively srotdpatti, sakriddgdmin^ andgdmin^ and arhat, 
or the four classes of Aryas, correspond to the four paths 
and truths. 

Aspect. The form (rupd) under which any principle in 
septenary man or Nature manifests is called an aspect of 
that principle in Theosophy. 

Astral Body. The ethereal counterpart or double of 
any physical body — doppelgdnger. 

Astrology. The science which defines the action of 
celestial bodies upon mundane affairs, and claims to fore- 
tell futiure events from the positions of the stars. Its antiq- 
uity is such as to place it among the very earliest records 
of human learning. It remained for long ages a secret sci- 
ence in the East, and its final expression remains so to this 
day, its exoteric appHcation only having been brought to 
any degree of perfection in the West during the lapse of 
time since Varaha Mihira wrote his book on Astrology, 
some fourteen hundred years ago. Claudius Ptolemy, the 
famous geographer and mathematician who founded the 
system of astronomy known under his name, wrote his 



GLOSSARY. 271 

Tetrabiblos, which is still the basis of modern Astrology, 
A.D. 135. The science of horoscopy is studied now chiefly 
under four heads, viz. : ( i ) Mtmdane, in its application to 
meteorology, seismology, husbandry. (2) State or Civic, in 
regard to the future of nations, kings, and rulers. (3) Ho- 
rary, in reference to the solving of doubts arising in the 
mind upon any subject. (4) Geiiethliacal, in connection 
with the future of individuals from birth unto death. The 
Egyptians and the Chaldees were among the most ancient 
votaries of Astrology, though their modes of reading the 
stars and the modern methods differ considerably. The 
former claimed that Belus, the Bel or Elu of the Chaldees, 
a scion of the Divine Dynasty, or the dynasty of the King- 
gods, had belonged to the land of Chemi, and had left it to 
found a colony from Egypt on the banks of the Euphrates, 
where a temple, ministered by priests in the service of the 
'' lords of the stars," was built. As to the origin of the sci- 
ence, it is known, on the one hand, that Thebes claimed the 
honor of the invention of Astrology, whereas, on the other 
hand, all are agreed that it was the Chaldees who taught 
that science to the other nations. Now Thebes antedated 
considerably not only '* Ur of the Chaldees," but also 
Nipur, where Bel was first worshiped — Sin, his son (the 
moon), being the presiding deity of Ur, the land of the 
nativity of Terah, the Sabean and astrolater, and of Abram, 
his son, the great astrologer of bibhcal tradition. All tends, 
therefore, to corroborate the Egyptian claim. If later on 
the name of astrologer fell into disrepute in Rome and else- 
where, it was owing to the frauds of those who wanted to 
make money of that which was part and parcel of the sacred 
science of the Mysteries, and who, ignorant of the latter, 
evolved a system based entirely on mathematics, instead of 
on transcendental metaphysics with the physical celestial 
bodies as its upadhi or material basis. Yet, all persecutions 
notwithstanding, the number of adherents to Astrology 



272 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

among the most intellectual and scientific minds was al- 
ways very great. If Cardan and Kepler were among its 
ardent supporters, then later votaries have nothing to blush 
for, even in its now imperfect and distorted form. As said 
in Isis Ufiveiled (i., 259) : '' Astrology is to exact astronomy 
what psychology is to exact physiology. In astrology and 
psychology one has to step beyond the visible world of 
matter and enter into the domain of transcendent spirit." 

Athenagoras. A Platonic philosopher of Athens who 
wrote An Apology for the Christia?is^ in a.d. 177, addressed 
to Marcus Aurelius, to prove that the accusations brought 
against them — viz., that they were incestuous and ate mur- 
dered children — were untrue. 

-A. ^ 

Atman, or Atma [Sans,), The universal spirit, the divme 
monad, the seventh ''principle," so called, in the exoteric 
septenary classification of man. The supreme soul. 

Aura {Gr, and Lat), A subtle, invisible essence or fluid 
that emanates from human, animal, and other bodies. It 
is a psychic effluvium partaking of both the mind and the 
body, as there is both an electrovital and at the same time 
an electromental aura ; called in Theosophy the akashic or 
magnetic aura. In Roman Catholic martyrology, a saint. 

Avatara(*S^;^i'.). Divine incarnation. The descent of 
a god, or some exalted being who has progressed beyond 
the necessity for rebirth, into the body of a simple mortal. 
Krishna was an avatdra of Vishnu. The Dalai- Lama is 
regarded as an avatdra of Avalokiteshvara, and the Teschu- 
Lama as one of Tson-kha-pa, or Amitabha. There are two 
kinds of avatdras, one born from woman and the other 
" parentless " — a?iupddaka. 



Be-ness. A term coined by Theosophists to render 
more accurately the essential meaning of the untranslatable 



GLOSSARY, 273 

word sat. The latter word does not mean " being," for the 
term "being" presupposes a sentient consciousness of exis- 
tence. But as the term sat is applied solely to the absolute 
principle, that universal, unknown, and ever unknowable 
principle which philosophical pantheism postulates, caUing 
it the basic root of cosmos and cosmos itself, it could not 
be translated by the simple term ''being." Sat^ indeed, is 
not even, as translated by some Orientalists, the ''incom- 
prehensible entity " ; for it is no more an entity than a 
non-entity, but both. It is, as said, absolute be-ness, not 
"being"; the one secondless, undivided, and indivisible 
all ; the root of Nature both visible and invisible, objective 
and subjective, comprehensible and never to be fully com- 
prehended. 

Bhagavad^Qita [Sans.). Lit., the " Lord's Song." A 
portion of the Mahabhdrata^ the great epic poem of India. 
It contains a dialogue wherein Krishna — the " charioteer " 
— and Arjuna, his cheld^ have a discussion upon the high- 
est spiritual philosophy. The work is preeminently occult 
or esoteric. 

Black Magic. Sorcery, necromancy, or the raising of 
the dead and other selfish abuses of abnormal powers. This 
abuse may be unintentional; still it has to remain "black" 
magic whenever anything is produced phenomenally simply 
for one's own gratification. 

Bohme, Jakob. A mystic and great philosopher, one 
of the most prominent Theosophists of the medieval ages. 
He was born about 1575 at Old Diedenberg, some two 
miles from Gorlitz (Silesia), and died in 1624, at the age of 
nearly fifty. When a boy he was a common shepherd, and, 
after learning to read and write in a village school, became 
an apprentice to a poor shoemaker at Gorlitz. He was a 
natural clairvoyant of the most wonderful power. With 
no education or acquaintance with science he wrote works 
which are now proved to be full of scientific truths; but 



274 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

these, as he himself says of what he wrote, he '^ saw as in 
a great deep in the eternal." He had ''a thorough view of 
the universe, as in chaos," which yet opened itself in him, 
from time to time, "as in a young planet," he says. He 
was a thorough-born mystic, and evidently of a constitution 
which is most rare ; one of those fine natures whose mate- 
rial envelope impedes in no way the direct, even if only 
occasional, intercommunication between the intellectual and 
spiritual Ego. It is this Ego which Jakob Bohme, as so 
many other untrained mystics, mistook for God. " Man 
must acknowledge," he writes, '' that his knowledge is not 
his own, but from God, who manifests the ideas of wisdom 
to the soul of man in what measure he pleases T Had this 
great Theosophist been bom three hundred years later he 
might have expressed it otherwise. He would have known 
that the " God " who spoke through his poor uncultured 
and untrained brain was his own divine Ego, the omniscient 
deity within himself, and that what that deity gave out 
was not '' what measure he pleased," but in the measure 
of the capacities of the mortal and temporary dwelling It 
informed. 

Book of the Keys. An ancient Kabalistic work. The 
original is no longer extant, though there may be spurious 
or disfigured copies or forgeries of it. 

Brahma i^Sans.). The student must distinguish between 
the neuter Brahma and the male "creator'* of the Indian 
Pantheon, Brahma. The former Brahma or Brahman is 
the impersonal, supreme, and uncognizable soul of the uni- 
verse, from the essence of which all emanates, and into 
which all returns ; which is incorporeal, immaterial, unborn, 
eternal, beginningless, and endless. It is all-pervading, 
animating the highest god as well as the smallest mineral 
atom. Brahma, on the other hand, the male and the 
alleged "creator," exists in his manifestation periodically 
only, and passes vi\\o pralaya — i.e., disappears and is anni- 
hilated — as periodically. 



GLOSSARY. 275 

Brahma's Day. A period of 4,320,000,000 years, dur- 
ing which Brahma, having emerged out of his Golden Egg 
{hiranya-garbha), creates and fashions the material world 
(for he is simply the fertilizing and creative force in Nature). 
After this period, the worlds being destroyed in turn by fire and 
water, he vanishes with objective Nature ; and then comes 

Brahma's Night. A period of equal duration, in which 
Brahma is said to be asleep. Upon awakening he recom- 
mences the process, and this goes on for an Age of Brahma, 
composed of alternate '' Days " and " Nights," and lasting 
for 100 years of 3,110,400,000,000 solar years each. It 
requires fifteen figures to express the duration of such an 
age, after the expiration of which the mahdpralaya or Great 
Dissolution sets in, and lasts in its turn for the same space of 
fifteen figures. 

Brahma=Vidya [Sa7is.). The knowledge or esoteric 
science about the true nature of the two Brahmas (Brahma 
and Brahma). 

Buddha {Sans). ''The Enlightened." Generally known 
as the title of Gautama Buddha, the Prince of Kapilavastu, 
the founder of modern Buddhism. The highest degree of 
knowledge and holiness. To become a Buddha one has 
to break through the bondage of sense and personaKty ; to 
acquire a complete perception of the real Self^ and learn 
not to separate it from all the other selves ; to learn by ex- 
perience the utter unreality of all phenomena, foremost of 
all the visible cosmos ; to attain a complete detachment 
from all that is evanescent and finite, and to live while yet 
on earth only in the immortal and everlasting. 

Buddhi [Sans.). Universal soul or mind. Mahdbuddhi 
is a name of mahat ; also the spiritual soul in man (the sixth 
principle, exoterically), the vehicle of Atma (the seventh, 
according to the exoteric enumeration). 

Buddhism is the religious philosophy taught by Gautama 
Buddha. It is now split into two distinct churches, the 
Southern and Northern. The former is said to be the purer, 



276 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

as having preserved more religiously the original teachings 
of the Lord Buddha. The Northern Buddhism is confined 
to Tibet, China, and Nepaul. But this distinction is incor- 
rect. If the Southern Chiu-ch is nearer, and has not, in 
fact, departed — except, perhaps, in trifling dogmas, due to 
the many councils held after the death of the Master — from 
the public or exoteric teachings of Shaky amuni, the North- 
ern Church is the outcome of Siddhartha Buddha's esoteric 
teachings, which he confined to his elect Bhikshus and 
Arhats. Buddhism, in fact, cannot be justly judged in our 
age either by one or the other of its exoteric popular forms. 
Real Buddhism can be appreciated only by blending the 
philosophy of the Southern Church and the metaphysics of 
the Northern schools. If one seems too iconoclastic and 
stern, and the other too metaphysical and transcendental, 
even to being overcharged with the weeds of Indian exoteri- 
cism — many of the gods of its Pantheon having been trans- 
planted under new names into Tibetan soil — it is due to the 
popular expression of Buddhism in both churches. Corre- 
spondentially they stand in their relation to each other as 
Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. Both err by an ex- 
cess of zeal and erroneous interpretations, though neither 
the Southern nor the Northern Buddhist clergy have ever 
departed from truth consciously ; still less have they acted 
under the dictates oi priestocracy ^ ambition, or an eye to per- 
sonal gain and power, as the later churches have. 

BuddhuTaijasa [Sans,). A very mystic term, capable 
of several interpretations. In Occultism, however, and in 
relation to the human ''principles" (exoterically), it is a term 
to express the state of our dual Manas, when, reunited during 
a man's life, it bathes in the radiance of Buddhi, the spir- 
itual soul. For Taijasa means '' the radiant " ; and Manas, 
becoming radiant in consequence of its union with Buddhi, 
and being, so to speak, merged into it, is identified with 
the latter ; the trinity has become one ; and, as the element 



GLOSSARY. 277 

of Buddhi is the highest, it becomes Buddhi-Taijasa. In 
short, it is the human soul illuminated by the radiance of 
the divine soul, the human reason lit by the Ught of the 
spirit or divine SELF-consciousness. 



Caste. Originally the system of the four hereditary 
classes into which the Indian population was divided: 
Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra — [a) descen- 
dants of Brahma; (p) warrior; (c) mercantile; and {d) the 
lowest or agricultural class. From these four hundreds of 
divisions and minor castes have sprung. 

Causal Body. This ''body," which is in reahty no 
body at all, either objective or subjective, but Buddhi, the 
spiritual soul, is so called because it is the direct cause of 
the sushupti state, leading to the turiya state, the highest 
state of samddhi. It is called kdranopddhi, "the basis of 
the cause," by the Taraka Raja Yogis, which in the Vedanta 
system corresponds to both the vijndna7naya and dnanda- 
maya kasha (the latter coming next to Atma, and therefore 
being the vehicle of the universal spirit). Buddhi alone 
could not be called a "causal body," but becomes one in 
conjunction with Manas, the incarnating entity or Ego. 

Chela {Hindi). A disciple. The pupil of a Guru or 
sage ; the follower of some Adept or school of philosophy. 

Chrestos (Gr.). The early Gnostic term for Christ. 
This technical term was used in the fifth century b>c. by 
^schylus, Herodotus, and others. The 77ianteumata pytho- 
cresfa, or the "oracles delivered by a Pythian god" through 
a pythoness, are mentioned by the former [Choeph., 9oi)> 
and pythocrestos is derived from chrao. Chr'esteiion is not 
only the " test of an oracle," but an offering to, or for, the 
oracle. Chrestes is one who explains oracles, a "prophet 
and soothsayer," and Chresterios^ one who serves an oracle 



278 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

or a god. The earliest Christian writer, Justin Martyr, in 
his first Apology^ calls his coreligionists Chrestians. "It is 
only through ignorance that men call themselves Christians, 
instead of Chrestians," says Lactantius (hb. iv., cap. vii.). 
The terms Christ and Christians, spelled originally Chrest 
and Chrestians, were borrowed from the temple vocabulary 
of the pagans. Chrestos meant, in that vocabulary, "a dis- 
ciple on probation," a candidate for hierophantship ; who, 
when he had attained it, through initiation, long trials, and 
suffering, and had been anointed (i.e., ''rubbed with oil,'* as 
Initiates and even idols of the gods were, as the last touch 
of ritualistic observance), was changed into Christos — the 
'* purified" in esoteric or mystery language. In mystic sym- 
bology, indeed, Christes or Christos meant that the *' way," 
the ''path," was already trodden and the goal reached; 
when the fruits of this arduous labor — uniting Ha^ person- 
ality of evanescent clay with the indestructible individuality 
— transformed it thereby into the immortal Ego. "At the 
end of the way stands the Christes," the Purifier ; and, the 
union once accomplished, the Chrestos, the " man of sor- 
row," became Christos himself. Paul, the Initiate, knew 
this, and meant this precisely when he is made to say in bad 
translation, "I travail in birth again until Christ be formed 
in you" (Gal. iv. 19), the true rendering of which is, "until 
you form the Christos within yourselves." But the profane, 
who knew only that Chrestos was in some way connected 
with priest and prophet, and knew nothing about the hid- 
den meaning of Christos, insisted, as did Lactantius and 
Justin Martyr, on being called Chrestians instead of Chris- 
tians. Every good individual, therefore, may find Christ 
in his "inner man," as Paul expresses it (Eph. iii. 16, 17), 
whether he be Jew, Mussulman, Hindu, or Christian. 

Christ. See " Chrestos." 

Christian Scientist. A newly coined term for denot- 
ing the practitioners of a healing art by will. The name is 



GLOSSARV, 279 

a misnomer, since Buddhist or Jew, Hindu or materialist, 
can practise this new form of ''Western Yoga" with equal 
success if he can only guide and control his will with suffi- 
cient firmness. The ''Mental Scientists" are another rival 
school. These work by a universal denial of every disease 
and evil imaginable, and claim, syllogistically, that since 
universal spirit cannot be subject to the ailings of flesh, and 
since every atom is spirit and in spirit, and since, finally, 
they — the healers and the healed — are all absorbed in this 
spirit or deity, there is not, nor can there be, such a thing 
as disease. This prevents in no wise both Christian and 
Mental Scientists from succumbing to disease and nursing 
clironic ailments for years in their own bodies just hke 
other ordinary mortals. 

Clairaudience. The faculty — whether innate or ac- 
quired by occult training — of hearing things at whatever 
distance. 

Clairvoyance. The faculty of seeing with the inner eye, 
or spiritual sight. As now used, it is a loose and flippant 
term, embracing under its meaning both a happy guess due 
to natural shrewdness or intuition, and also that faculty 
which was so remarkably exercised by Jakob Bohme and 
Swedenborg. Yet even these two great seers, since they 
could never rise superior to the general spirit of the Jew- 
ish Bible and sectarian teachings, have sadly confused what 
they saw, and fallen far short of true clairvoyance. 

Clemens Alexandrinus. A church father and volu- 
minous writer, who had been a Neoplatonist and a disciple 
of Ammonius Saccas. He was one of the few Christian 
philosophers between the second and third centuries of our 
era at Alexandria. 

College of Rabbis. A college at Babylon, most famous 
during the early centuries of Christianity ; but its glory was 
greatly darkened by the appearance in Alexandria of Hel- 
lenic teachers, such as Philo Judaeus, Josephus, Aristobulus, 



280 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

and others. The former avenged themselves on their suc- 
cessful rivals by speaking of the Alexandrians as Theurgists 
and unclean prophets. But the Alexandrian believers in 
thaumaturgy were not regarded as sinners and impostors 
when orthodox Jews were at the head of such schools of 
'* Hazim." These were colleges for teaching prophecy and 
occult sciences. Samuel was the chief of such a college at 
Ramah ; EHsha at Jericho. Hillel had a regular academy 
for prophets and seers; and it is Hillel, a pupil of the 
Babylonian college, who was the founder of the sect of 
the Pharisees and the great orthodox rabbis. 

Cycle {Gr.). From kuklos. The ancients divided time 
into endless cycles, wheels within wheels, all such periods 
being of various duration, and each marking the beginning 
or end of some event, either cosmic, mundane, physical, or 
metaphysical. There were cycles of only a few years, and 
cycles of immense duration. The great Orphic cycle, re- 
ferring to the ethnological change of races, lasted one hun- 
dred and twenty thousand years, and that of Cassandrus 
one hundred and thirty-six thousand. The latter brought 
about a complete change in planetary influences and their 
correlations between men and gods — a fact entirely lost sight 
of by modern astrologers. 

D. 

Deist. One who admits the possibility of the existence 
of a God or gods, but claims to know nothing of either, 
and denies revelation. An agnostic of olden times. 

Deva {Sa7is.). A god, a "resplendent" deity — deva 
(deus), from the root dw, to shine. A Deva is a celestial 
being — whether good, bad, or indifferent — which inhabits 
the three '' worlds " or the three planes above us. There 
are thirty-three groups or three hundred and thirty millions 
of them. 



GLOSSARY, 281 

Devachan. The ''dwelling of the gods." A state in- 
termediate between two earth-lives, into which the Ego 
(Atma-Buddhi-Manas, or the Trinity made one) enters after 
its separation from Kama Rupa and the disintegration of 
the lower principles, on the death of the body on earth. 

Dhammapada {Pali). A work containing various apho- 
risms from the Buddhist Scriptures. 

Dhyan Chohans. Lit., the ''lords of contemplation." 
The highest gods, answering to the Roman Cathohc arch- 
angels. The divine intelligences charged with the supervi- 
sion of cosmos. 

Dhyana (&;^^.). One of the six pdramitds or perfec- 
tions. A state of abstraction which carries the ascetic prac- 
tising it far above the region of sensuous perception and 
out of the world of matter. Lit., "contemplation." The 
six stages of d/iydna differ only in the degrees of abstrac- 
tion of the personal Ego from sensuous life. 

Double. The same as the astral body or doppelgdnger. 



Ecstasis {Gr), A psychospiritual state; a physical 
trance which induces clairvoyance, and a beatific state 
which brings on visions. 

Ego [Lat.). " I " ; the consciousness in man of the " I 
am I," or the feeling of " I-am-ship." Esoteric Philosophy 
teaches the existence of two Egos in man, the mortal or 
personal, and the higher, the divine or impersonal ; calling 
the former " personality," and the latter " individuality." 

Egoity. Egoity means "individuality" — never "per- 
sonality," as it is the opposite of egoism or " selfishness," 
the characteristic par excellence of the latter. 

Eidolon {Gr). The same as that which we term the 
human phantom, the astral form. 

Elementals. Spirits of the elements. The creatures 



282 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

evolved in the four kingdoms or elements — earth, air, fire, 
and water. They are called by the Kabalists gnomes (of 
the earth), sylphs (of the air), salamanders (of the fire), and 
undines (of the water). Except a few of the higher kinds 
and their rulers, they are rather the forces of Nature than 
ethereal men and women. These forces, as the servile 
agents of the occultist, may produce various effects ; but 
if employed by ^' elementaries " (Kama Rupas) — in which 
case they enslave the mediums — they will deceive. All the 
lower invisible beings generated on the fifth, sixth, and sev- 
enth planes of our terrestrial atmosphere are called elemen- 
tal — peris, devs, jinns, sylvans, satyrs, fauns, elves, dwarfs, 
trolls, norns, kobolds, brownies, nixies, goblins, pinkies, 
banshees, moss-people, white ladies, spooks, fairies, etc. 

Bleusinia {Gr,). The Eleusinian Mysteries were the 
most famous and the most ancient of all the Greek Mys- 
teries (with the exception of the Samothracian), and were 
performed near the hamlet of Eleusis, not far from Athens. 
Epiphanius traces them to the days of lacchos (1800 B.C.). 
They were held in honor of Demeter, the great Ceres, and 
the Egyptian Isis ; and the last act of the performance re- 
ferred to a sacrificial victim of atonement and a resurrec- 
tion, when the Initiate was admitted to the highest degree 
of Epopt. The festival of the Mysteries began in the month 
of Boedromion (September), the time of grape-gathering, 
and lasted from the 15th to the 22d — seven days. The 
Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles — the feast of ingatherings — 
in the month of Ethanim (the seventh), also began on the 
15th and ended on the 2 2d of that month. The name of 
the month (Ethanim) is derived, according to some, from 
adonim^ adonia^ atteiiim^ ethanim^ and was in honor of Adonai, 
or Adonis (Tham), whose death was lamented by the He- 
brews in the groves of Bethlehem. The sacrifice of ''bread 
and wine " was performed both in the Eleusinia and dur- 
ing the Feast of Tabernacles. 



GLOSSARY. 283 

Emanation. This doctrine, in its metaphysical meaning, 
is opposed to evolution, yet one with it. Science teaches 
that, physiologically, evolution is a mode of generation in 
which the germ that develops the fetus preexists already in 
the parent, the development and final form and character- 
istics of that germ being accomphshed by Nature ; and that 
(as in its cosmology) the process takes place blindly^ through 
the correlation of the elements and their various compounds. 
Occultism teaches that this is only the apparent mode, the 
real process being emajiation^ guided by intelligent forces 
under an immutable law. Therefore, while the occultists 
and Theosophists believe thoroughly in the doctrine of evo- 
lution as given out by Kapila and Manu, they are '' ema- 
nationists " rather than '' evolutionists." The doctrine of 
emanation was at one time universal. It was taught by the 
Alexandrian as well as by the Indian philosophers, by the 
Egyptian, the Chaldsean and Hellenic hierophants, and also 
by the Hebrews (in their Kabalah, and even in Genesis). 
For it is only owang to deliberate mistranslation that the 
Hebrew word asdt was translated ^' angels " from the Sep- 
tuagint, while it means ''emanations," ''eons," just as with 
the Gnostics. Indeed, in Deuteronomy (xxxiii. 2) the word 
asdt or ashdt is translated as " fiery law," while the correct 
rendering of the passage should be, "from his right went 
[not a fiery law^ but] a fi.re according to law,'^ viz., that the 
fire of one flame is imparted to and caught up by another 
— like as in a trail of inflammable substance. This is pre- 
cisely emanation, as shown in Isis Uiiveiled. "In evolution, 
as it is now beginning to be understood, there is supposed 
to be in all matter an impulse to take on a higher form — a 
supposition clearly expressed by Manu and other Hindu 
philosophers of the highest antiquity. The philosopher's 
tree illustrates it in the case of the zinc solution. The con- 
troversy between the followers of this school and the ema- 
nationists may be briefly stated thus : the evolutionist stops 



284 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

all inquiry at the borders of ' the unknowable ' ; the ema- 
nationist believes that nothing can be evolved — or, as the 
word means, unwombed or born — except it has first been in- 
volved, thus indicating that life is from a spiritual potency 
above the whole." 

Esoteric. Hidden, secret. From the Greek esotericos^ 
inner, concealed. 

Esoteric Bodhism. Secret wisdom or intelHgence; 
from the Greek esotericos, inner, and the Sanskrit bodhi, 
knowledge, in contradistinction to buddhi^ the faculty of 
knowledge or intelligence, and buddhism^ the philosophy 
or law of buddha, the ''Enlightened." Also written "Bud- 
hism," from budha (intelligence, wisdom), the son of Soma. 

Eurasians. An abbreviation of '' European- Asians." 
The mixed colored races, the children of the white fathers 
and the dark mothers of India, and vice versa. 

Exoteric. Outward, public ; the opposite of esoteric or 
hidden. 

Extracosmic. Outside of cosmos or Nature. A non- 
sensical word invented to assert the existence of di personal 
god independent of or outside Nature per se; for as Nature, 
or the universe, is infinite and limitless, there can be nothing 
outside it. The term is coined in opposition to the panthe- 
istic idea that the whole cosmos is animated or informed 
with the spirit of deity. Nature being but the garment, and 
matter the illusive shadows, of the real unseen Presence. 

R 

Ferho [Syriac ?). The highest and greatest creative 
power with the Nazarene Gnostics. 

Fire-Philosophers. The name given to the Hermetists 
and alchemists of the middle ages, and also to the Rosicru- 
cians. The latter, the successors of Theurgists, regarded 
fire as the symbol of deity. It was the source not only 



GLOSSARY. 285 

of material atoms, but the container of the spiritual and 
psychic forces energizing them. Broadly analyzed, fire is a 
triple principle ; esoterically, a septenary, as are all the rest 
of the elements. As man is composed of spirit, soul, and 
body, plus a fourfold aspect, so is fire. As in the works 
of Robert Flood (Robertus de Fluctibus), one of the famous 
Rosicrucians, fire contains, firstly, a visible flame (body) ; 
secondly, an invisible, astral fire (soul) ; and thirdly, spirit. 
The four aspects are [a) heat (hfe), {b) light (mind), {c) elec- 
tricity (kamic or molecular powers), and [d) the synthetic 
essences beyond spirit^ or the radical cause of its existence 
and manifestation. For the Hermetist or Rosicrucian, when 
a flame is extinct on the objective plane, it has only passed 
from the seen world into the unseen, from the knowable 
into the unknowable. 



Gautama [Sans.). A proper name in India. It is 
that of the Prince of Kapilavastu, son of Suddhodana, the 
Shakhya king of a small territory on the borders of Nepaul, 
bom in the seventh century B.C., now called the "savior 
of the world." Gautama, or Gotama, was the sacerdotal 
name of the Shakhya family. Born a simple mortal, he 
rose to Buddhahood through his own personal and unaided 
merit ; a man — verily greater than any god ! 

Qebirol. Solomon ben-Yehudah, called in literature 
Avicebron. An Israelite by birth ; a philosopher, poet, and 
Kabalist ; a voluminous writer and a mystic. He was bom 
in the eleventh century at Malaga (102 1), educated at Sara- 
gossa, and died at Valencia in 1070, murdered by a Moham- 
medan. His fellow-religionists called him Salomon the Sep- 
hardi, or the Spaniard, and the Arabs, Abu Ayyub Suleiman 
ben-Ya'hya Ibn Djebirol, while the Scholastics named him 
Avicebron (see Myer's Qabbalah). Ibn Gebirol was cer- 
tainly one of the greatest philosophers and scholars of his 



286 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

age. He wrote much in Arabic, and most of his manu- 
scripts have been preserved. His greatest work appears to 
be the Me'qor' Hayyim — i.e., Fountain of Life — ''one of the 
earliest exposures of the secrets of the speculative Kabalah," 
as his biographer informs us. 

Gnosis {Gr.), Lit., ''knowledge.*' The technical term 
used by the schools of rehgious philosophy, both before 
and during the first centuries of so-called Christianity, to 
denote the object of their inquiry. This spiritual and sacred 
knowledge, the gupta-vidyd of the Hindus, could only be 
obtained by initiation into spiritual mysteries of which the 
ceremonial " Mysteries " were a type. 

Gnostics {Gr.), The philosophers who formulated and 
taught the Gnosis or knowledge. They flourished in the 
first three centuries of the Christian era. The following 
were eminent: Simon Magus, Valentinus, Basilides, Mar- 
cion, etc. 

Golden Age. The ancients divided the life-cycle into 
the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. The Golden 
was an age of primeval purity, simplicity, and general hap- 
piness. 

Great Age. There are several " Great Ages " men- 
tioned by the ancients. In India the Great Age embraced 
the whole mahdmanvantara^ the "Age of Brahma," each 
" Day " of which represents the life-cycle of a " chain/' 
i.e., it embraces a period of seven " rounds " (see Esoteric 
Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett). Thus, while a "Day" and 
a " Night " represent, as manvantara and pralaya, 8,640,- 
000,000 years, an "Age" lasts through a period of 311,- 
040,000,000,000 ; after which \}ciiQ pralaya or dissolution of 
the universe becomes universal. With the Egyptians and 
Greeks the Great Age referred only to the Tropical or 
Sidereal Year, the duration of which is 25,868 solar years. 
Of the complete age — that of the gods — they said nothing, 
as it was a matter to be discussed and divulged only at the 



GLOSSARY, 287 

Mysteries, and during the initiation ceremonies. The Great 
Age of the Chaldees was the same in figures as that of the 
Hindus. 

Quhya-Vidya [Sans.). The secret knowledge of mys- 
tic mantras. 

Gupta- Vidya (&?2^.). The sa,me sls gu/iya-vidy a. Eso- 
teric or secret science, knowledge. 

Qyges. '' The ring of Gyges " has become a familiar 
metaphor in European literature. Gyges was a Lydian, who, 
after murdering the King Candaules, married his widow. 
Plato tells us that Gyges, descending once into a chasm of 
the earth, discovered a brazen horse, within whose opened 
side was the skeleton of a man of gigantic stature, who had 
a brazen ring on his finger. This ring, when placed on his 
own finger, made him invisible. 

H. 

Hades (Gr.). Aides is the ''invisible," the land of 
shadows; one of whose regions was Tartarus, a place of 
complete darkness, as was also the region of profound 
dreamless sleep in Amenti. Judging by the allegorical de- 
scription of the punishments inflicted therein, the place 
was purely karmic. Neither Hades nor Amenti was the 
hell still preached by some retrograde priests and clergy- 
men ; and whether represented by the Elysian Fields or by 
Tartarus, it could only be reached by crossing the river to 
the " other shore." As well expressed in Egyptian Belief 
(Bonwick), the story of Charon, the ferryman of the Styx, 
is to be found not only in Homer, but in the poetry of 
many lands. The River must be crossed before gaining the 
Isles of the Blest. The Ritual of Egypt described a Charon 
and his boat long ages before Homer. He is Khu-en-ra, 
" the hawk-headed steersman." 

Hallucinations. A state produced sometimes by physi- 



288 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ological disorders, sometimes by mediumship, and at others 
by drunkenness. But the cause that produces the visions 
has to be sought deeper than physiology. All such, par- 
ticularly when produced through mediumship, are preceded 
by a relaxation of the nervous system, invariably generat- 
ing an abnormal magnetic condition which attracts to the 
sufferer waves of astral light. It is these latter that furnish 
the various hallucinations, which, however, are not always, 
as physicians would explain them, mere empty and unreal 
dreams. No one can see that which does not exist — i.e., 
which is not impressed — in or on the astral waves. But a 
seer may perceive objects and scenes, whether past, present, 
or future, which have no relation whatever to himself ; and 
perceive, moreover, several things entirely disconnected from 
each other at one and the same time, so as to produce the 
most grotesque and absurd combinations. Both drunkard 
and seer, medium and Adept, see their respective visions in • 
the astral light ; only while the drunkard, the madman, and 
the untrained medium, or one in a brain-fever, see because 
they cannot help it, and evoke jumbled visions uncon- 
sciously to themselves without being able to control them, 
the Adept and the trained seer have the choice and the con- 
trol of such visions. They know where to fix their gaze, 
how to steady the scenes they wish to observe, and how 
to see beyond the upper outward layers of the astral light. 
With the former such glimpses into the waves are halluci- 
nations ; with the latter they become the faithful reproduc- 
tion of what actually has been, is, or will be taking place. 
The glimpses at random caught by the medium, and his 
flickering visions in the deceptive light, are transformed 
under the guiding will of the Adept and seer into steady 
pictures, the truthful representation of that which he wills 
to come within the focus of his perception. 

Hell. A term which the Anglo-Saxon race has evidently 
derived from the name of the Scandinavian goddess Hela^ 



GLOSSARY, 289 

just as the word Ad^ in Russian and other Slavonian tongues, 
expressing the same conception, is derived from the Greek 
Hades ; the only difference between the Scandinavian cold 
hell and the hot hell of the Christians being found in their 
respective temperatures. But the idea of these overheated 
regions is not original with the Europeans, many people hav- 
ing entertained the conception of an under- world climate ; 
as well we may, if we localize our hell in the center of the 
earth. All exoteric religions — the creeds of the Brahmans, 
Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Mohammedans, Jews, and the rest — 
make their hells hot and dark, though many are more attrac- 
tive than frightful. The idea of a hot hell is an afterthought, 
the distortion of an astronomical allegory. With the Egyp- 
tians hell became a place of punishment by fire not earlier 
than the Seventeenth or Eighteenth Dynasty, when Typhon 
was transformed from a god into a devil. But at whatever 
time they implanted this dread superstition in the minds of 
the poor ignorant masses, the scheme of a burning hell and 
souls tormented therein is purely Egyptian. Ra (the Sun) 
became the Lord of the Furnace, in Karr^ the hell of the 
Pharaohs, and the sinner was threatened with misery '' in 
the heat of infernal fires." "A lion was there," says Dr. 
Birch, ''and was called the roaring monster." Another 
describes the place as ''the bottomless pit and lake of fire, 
into which the victims are thrown " (compare Revelation). 
The Hebrew word gdihinnom (gehenna) had never really 
the significance given to it in Christian orthodoxy. 

Hernias. An ancient Greek writer, of whose works only 
a few fragments now remain extant. 

Hierogrammatists. The title given to those Egyptian 
priests who were intrusted with the writing and reading of 
the sacred and secret records. The "scribes of the secret 
records," literally. They were the instructors of the neo- 
phytes preparing for initiation. 

Hierophant. From the Greek hierophantes^ literally '* he 



290 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

who explains sacred things " ; a title belonging to the high- 
est Adepts in the temples of antiquity, who were the teach- 
ers and expounders of the Mysteries, and the initiators into 
the final great Mysteries. The Hierophant stood for the 
demiurge, and explained to the postulants for initiation the 
various phenomena of creation that were produced for their 
tuition. '' He was the sole expounder of the exoteric secrets 
and doctrines. It was forbidden even to pronounce his 
name before an uninitiated person. He sat in the East, 
and wore as symbol of authority a golden globe suspended 
from the neck. He was also called mystagogus.'" (Mac- 
kenzie, The Royal Masonic Cyclopedia.) 

Hillel. A great Babylonian rabbi of the century pre- 
ceding the Christian era. He was the founder of the sect 
of the Pharisees, a learned and a saintly man. 

Hinayana [Sayts.). The ''small vehicle " ; a scripture and 
a school of the Buddhists, contrasted with the mahdydna, 
the ''great vehicle." Both schools are mystical. Also, in 
exoteric superstition, the lowest form of transmigration. 

Homogeneity. From the Greek words homos, the same, 
and genos, kind. That which is of the same nature through- 
out, undifferentiated, non-compound, as gold is supposed to 
be. 

Hypnotism. A name given by Dr. Braid to the process 
by which one man of strong will-power plunges another of 
weaker mind into a kind of trance ; once in such a state, 
the latter will do anything suggested to him by the hypno- 
tizer. Unless produced for beneficial purposes, the Occul- 
tists would call it black magic or sorcery. It is the most 
dangerous of practices, morally and physically, as it interferes 
with the nerve-fluids. 

I. 

lamblichus. A great Theosophist and an Initiate of the 
third century. He wrote a great deal about the various 



GLOSSARY. 291 

kinds of demons who appear through evocation, but spoke 

severely against such phenomena. His austerities, purity 
of Hfe, and earnestness were great. He is credited with 
having been levitated ten cubits high from the ground, as 
are some modern Yogis and mediums. 

Illusion. In Occultism everything finite (such as the 
universe and all in it) is called " illusion " or mdyd. 

Individuality. One of the names given in Theosophy 
and Occultism to the human higher Ego. We make a dis- 
tinction between the immortal and divine and the mortal 
human Ego which perishes. The latter, or *^ personality " 
(personal Ego), survives the dead body only for a time in 
Kamaloka ; the *' individuality " prevails forever. 

Initiate. From the Latin initiatiis. The designation 
of any one who was received into and had revealed to him 
the mysteries and secrets of either Masonry or Occultism. 
In times of antiquity they were those who had been initi- 
ated into the arcane knowledge taught by the Hierophants 
of the Mysteries ; and in our modern days those who have 
been initiated by the Adepts of mystic lore into the mysteri- 
ous knowledge, which, notwithstanding the lapse of ages, 
has yet a few real votaries on earth. 

Ishvara {Sans,), The "Lord," or the personal god, 
divine spirit in man. Literally, " sovereign " (independent) 
existence. A title given to Shiva and other gods in India. 
Shiva is also called Ishvaradeva, or Sovereign Deva. 



Javidan Khirad [Pers,). A work on moral precepts. 

Jhana (Pali). The Sanskrit Jndna, knowledge, occult 
wisdom. 

Josephus, Flavius. A historian of the first centmy ; a 
Hellenized Jew who hved in Alexandria and died at Rome. 
Fie was credited by Eusebius wath having wTitten the sixteen 



292 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

famous lines relating to Christ, which were most probably 
interpolated by Eusebius himself, the greatest forger among 
the church fathers. This passage, in which Josephus, al- 
though he was an ardent Jew and died in Judaism, is never- 
theless made to acknowledge the Messiahship and divine 
origin of Jesus, is now declared spurious both by most of 
the Christian bishops (Lardner among others) and even by 
Paley. (See his Evidences of Christianity.) It was for 
centuries one of the weightiest proofs of the real existence 
of Jesus, the Christ. 

Jukabar Zivo. A Gnostic term. The '' Lord of the 
Eons" in the Nazarene system. He is the procreator 
(emanator) of the seven '' Holy Lives " (the seven primal 
Dhyan Chohans or archangels, each representing one of 
the cardinal virtues), and is himself called the third Life 
(third Logos). In the Codex Nazarceus he is addressed as 
the '' Helm " and '' Vine '' of the food of life. Thus he is 
identical with Christ ( Christ os), who says, '' I am the true 
vine^ and my Father is the husbandman." (John xv. i.) 
It is well known that Christ is regarded in the Roman 
Catholic Church as the '' Chief of the Eons," as also is 
Michael, ''who is as God." Such also was the belief of 
the Gnostics. 



K. 



Kabalah {Heb,), ''The hidden wisdom of the Hebrew 
rabbis of the middle ages, derived from the older secret 
doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which 
were combined into a theology after the time of the captiv- 
ity of the Jews in Babylon." All the works that fall under 
the esoteric category are termed Kabalistic. 

Kamaloka {Sa7is.), The j'<f;^^/-material plane, to us sub- 
jective and invisible, where the disembodied " personalities," 
the astral forms called Kama Rupa, remain until they fade 



GLOSSARY. 293 

out from it by the complete exhaustion of the effects of the 
mental impulses that created these eidolons of the lower ani- 
mal passions and desires. It is the Hades of the ancient 
Greeks and the Amenti of the Egyptians — the Land of 
Silent Shadows. 

Kama Rupa [Sa^is.). Metaphysically and in our Eso- 
teric Philosophy it is the subjective form created, through 
the mental and physical desires and thoughts in connection 
with things of matter, by all sentient beings ; a form which 
survives the death of its body. After that death, three of 
the seven ''principles" (or, let us say, planes of the senses 
and consciousness on which the human instincts and idea- 
tion act in turn), viz., the body, its astral prototype, and 
physical vitality, being of no further use, remain on earth ; 
the three higher principles, grouped into one, merge into a 
state of Devachan, in which state the higher Ego will re- 
main until the hour for a new reincarnation arrives, and the 
eidolon of the ex-personality is left alone in its new abode. 
Here the pale copy of the man that was vegetates for a 
period of time, the duration of which is variable according 
to the element of materiality which is left in it, and which 
is determined by the past life of the d-efunct. Bereft as it 
is of its higher mind, spirit, and physical senses, if left alone 
to its own senseless devices it will gradually fade out and 
disintegrate. But if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial 
sphere, whether by the passionate desires and appeals of 
the surviving friends or by regular necromantic practices — 
one of the most pernicious of which is mediumship — the 
'' spook " may prevail for a period greatly exceeding the 
span of the natural life of its body. Once the Kama Rupa 
has learned the way back to living human bodies, it be- 
comes a vampire feeding on the vitahty of those who are 
so anxious for its company. In India these eidolons are 
Q.2i}\^^ pisdchas ^ and are much dreaded. 

Kapilavastu {Sans). The birthplace of the Lord Bud- 



294 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

dha, called the " yellow dwelling/' the capital of the mon- 
arch who was the father of Gautama Buddha. 

Kardec, Allan. The adopted name of the founder of 
the French Spiritists, whose real name was Rivaille. It 
was he who gathered and published the trance utterances 
of certain mediums, and afterward made a "philosophy" 
of them, between the years 1855 and 1870. 

Karma {Saiis,). Physically, Action; metaphysically, 
the Law of Retribution ; the Law of Cause and Effect, or 
Ethical Causation. It is Nemesis only in the sense of bad 
Karma. It is the eleventh niddna in the concatenation of 
causes and effects in orthodox Buddhism; yet it is the 
power that controls all things, the resultant of moral action, 
the metaphysical samskdra^ or the moral effect of an act 
committed for the attainment of something which gratifies 
a personal desire. There is the Karma of merit and the 
Karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes nor rewards ; 
it is simply the one universal law which guides unerringly, 
and, so to say, blindly, all other laws productive of certain 
effects along the grooves of their respective causations. 
When Buddhism teaches that '' Karma is that moral kernel 
(of any being) which alone sm*vives death and continues in 
transmigration " or reincarnation, it simply means that there 
remains naught after each personality but the causes pro- 
duced by it, causes which are undying, i.e., which cannot 
be eliminated from the universe until replaced by their legit- 
imate effects, and, so to speak, wiped out by them. And 
such causes, unless compensated with adequate effects dur- 
ing the Hfe of the person who produced them, will follow 
the reincarnated Ego and reach it in its subsequent incar- 
nations, until a full harmony between effects and causes is 
fully reestablished. No '' personality " — a mere bundle of 
material atoms and instinctual and mental characteristics — 
can, of course, continue as such in the world of pure spirit. 
Only that which is immortal in its very nature and divine 



I 



GLOSSARY. 295 

in its essence — namely, the Ego — can exist forever. And 
as it is that Ego which chooses the personahty it will inform 
after each Devachan, and which receives through these per- 
sonalities the effects of the karmic causes produced, it is 
therefore the Ego, that 6^^^ which is the '^ moral kernel " 
referred to, and in fact embodied Karma itself — "which 
alone survives death." 

Kether {Hel?.). ''The Crown, the highest of the ten 
Sephiroth ; the first of the supernal triad. It corresponds 
to the Macroprosopos, Vast Countenance, or Arikh Anpin, 
which differentiates into Chokmah and Binah." 

Krishna [SaJts.). The most celebrated avatdra of Vishnu, 
the ''savior" of the Hindus, and the most popular god. 
He is the eighth avatdra^ the son of Devaki and nephew 
of Kansha, the Indian Herod, who, while seeking for him 
among the shepherds and cowherds who concealed him, 
slew thousands of their newly born babes. The story of 
Krishna's conception, birth, and childhood is the exact pro- 
totype of the New Testament story. The missionaries, of 
course, try to show that the Hindus stole the story of the 
nativity from the early Christians who came to India. 

Kshetrajna, or Kshetrajneshvara {Sans.). Embodied 
spirit in Occultism, the conscious Ego in its highest mani- 
festations ; the reincarnating principle, or the " Lord " in us. 

Kumara [Sans.). A virgin boy or young celibate. The 
first kumdras are the seven sons of Brahma, born out of 
the limbs of the god in the so-called 7iinth " creation." It 
is stated that the name was given to them owing to their 
formal refusal to " procreate " their species, and thus they 
" remained Yogis " according to the legend. 

L. 

Labre, St. A Roman saint solemnly beatified a few 
years ago. His great holiness consisted in sitting at one 



296 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

of the gates of Rome night and day for forty years, and re- 
maining unwashed through the whole of that time, the result 
of which was that he was eaten by vermin to his bones. 

Lao=Tze [Chm.). A great sage, saint, and philosopher, 
who was the contemporary of Confucius. 

Law of Retribution. See " Karma." 

Linga Sharira {Sans.). ''Astral body," i.e., the aerial 
symbol of the body. This term designates the doppelgdnger^ 
or the '' astral body " of man or animal. It is the eidolofi 
of the Greeks, the vital and prototypal body, the reflection 
of the man of flesh. It is born before man, and dies or 
fades out wuth the disappearance of the last atom of the 
body. 

Logos {Gr.). The manifested deity with every nation 
and people; the outward expression or the effect of the 
cause which is ever concealed. Thus speech is the logos of 
thought ; hence, in its metaphysical sense, it is aptly trans- 
lated by the terms '' Verbum " and "Word." 

Long Face. A Kabalistic term ; Arikh Anpin in Hebrew, 
or '' Long Face " ; in Greek, Macroprosopos, as contrasted 
with " Short Face," or Zeir Anpin, the Microprosopos. One 
relates to deity, the other to man, the '' little image of the 
great form." 

Longinus, Dionysius Cassius. A famous critic and 
philosopher, born in the very beginning of the third century 
(about A.D. 213). He was a great traveler, and attended 
at Alexandria the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, the founder 
of Neoplatonism, but was rather a critic than a follower. 
Porphyry (the Jew Malek or Malchus) was his pupil before 
he became the disciple of Plotinus. It is said of him that 
he was a living library and a walking museum. Toward 
the end of his life he became the instructor in Greek litera- 
ture of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra. She repaid his services 
by accusing him before the Emperor Aurelian of having 
advised her to rebel against the latter, a crime for which 



GLOSSARY. 297 

Longinus, with several others, was put to death by the 
emperor in 273. 

M. 

Macrocosm. The '' great universe " or cosmos. 

Magic. The '' great " science. According to Deveria 
and other Orientahsts, ''magic was considered as a sacred 
science inseparable from religion '' by the oldest and most 
civilized and learned nations. The Egyptians, for instance, 
were a most sincerely religious nation, as were, and are still, 
the Hindus. '' Magic consists of, and is acquired by, the 
worship of the gods," says Plato. Could, then, a nation 
which, owing to the irrefragable evidence of inscriptions 
and papyri, is proved to have firmly beheved in magic for 
thousands of years have been deceived tor so long a time ? 
And is it likely that generations upon generations of a 
learned and pious hierarchy, many among whom led lives 
of self-martyrdom, holiness, and asceticism, would have 
gone on deceiving themselves and the people (or even only 
the latter) for the pleasure of perpetuating belief in '' mira- 
cles"? Fanatics, we are told, will do anything to enforce 
belief in their gods or idols. To this we reply: In such 
cases Brahmans and Egyptian rekhget-amens or Hierophants 
would not have popularized the behef i7i the power of man 
to command the services of the gods by magic practices ; which 
gods are in truth but the occult powers or potencies of 
Nature, personified by the learned priests themselves, who 
reverenced in them only the attributes of the one unknown 
and nameless principle. As Proclus, the Platonist, ably 
puts it : " Ancient priests, when they considered that there 
is a certain alliance and sympathy in natural things to each 
other, and in things manifest to occult powers, and discovered 
that all things subsist in ^^^ fabricated a sacred science from 
this mutual sympathy and similarity^ . . . and applied for 
occult purposes both celestial and terrene natures, by means 



298 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

of which, through a certain similitude, they deduced divine 
natures into this inferior abode." Magic is the science of 
communicating with and directing supernal supramundane 
potencies, as well as commanding those of lower spheres ; a 
practical knowledge of the hidden mysteries of Nature, which 
are known only to the few, because they are so difficult to 
acquire without falling into sin against the law. Ancient 
and medieval mystics divided magic into three classes — 
Theurgia, Goetia, and Natural Magic. " Theurgia has long 
since been appropriated as the peculiar sphere of the The- 
osophists and metaphysicians," says Kenneth Mackenzie. 
'* Goetia is black magic, and ' natural ' or white magic has 
risen with healing in its wings to the proud position of an 
exact and progressive study." The remarks added by our 
late learned brother are remarkable : '' The realistic desires 
of modem times have contributed to bring magic into dis- 
repute and ridicule. . . . Faith (in one's own self) is an 
essential element in magic, and existed long before other 
ideas which presume its preexistence. It is said that it 
takes a wise man to make a fool ; and a man's idea must 
be exalted almost to madness — i.e., his brain susceptibilities 
must be increased far beyond the low, miserable status of 
modern civilization — before he can become a true magician, 
for a pursuit of this science implies a certain amount of iso- 
lation and an abnegation of self." A very great isolation, 
certainly, the achievement of which constitutes a wonderful 
phenomenon, a miracle in itself. Withal, magic is not some- 
thing supernatural. As explained by lamblichus : *' They, 
through the sacerdotal theurgy, announce that they are 
able to ascend to more elevated and universal essences^ and 
to those that are established above fate, viz., to god and 
the demiurgus ; neither employing matter, nor assuming any 
other things besides, except the observation of a sensible 
time." Already some are beginning to recognize the exis- 
tence of subtle powers and influences in Nature, in which 



GLOSSARY, 299 

they have hitherto known naught. But, as Dr. Carter Blake 
truly remarks, ''the nineteenth century is not that which 
has observed the genesis of new, nor the completion of old, 
methods of thought;" to which Mr. Bon wick adds that ''if 
the ancients knew but little of our mode of investigation 
into the secrets of Nature, we know still less of their mode 
of research." 

Magic, Black. Sorcery, abuse of powers. 

Magic, Ceremonial. Magic, according to Kabalistic 
rites, worked out, as alleged by the Rosicrucians and other 
mystics, by invoking powers spiritually higher than man, 
and commanding elementals who are far lower than him- 
self on the scale of being. 

Magic, White. " Beneficent magic," so called, is divine 
magic, devoid of selfishness, love of power, of ambition or 
lucre, and bent only on doing good to the world in general 
and one's neighbor in particular. The smallest attempt to 
use one's abnormal powers for the gratification of self makes 
of these powers sorcery or black magic. 

Mahamanvantara {Sans). The great interludes be- 
tween the Mantis, the period of universal activity. Man- 
vantara here implies simply a period of activity, as opposed 
to pralaya or rest, without reference to the length of the 
cycle. 

Mahat {Sans.), Lit., the "great" one. The first prin- 
ciple of universal intelHgence and consciousness. In the 
Pauranic philosophy, the first product of root-nature oxprad- 
hdna (the same as mulaprakriti) ; the producer of mafias, 
the thinking principle, and of ahankdra, egotism, or the 
feeling of " I am I " in the lower Manas. 

Mahatma {Sa7is.). Lit., "great soul." An Adept of 
the highest order. An exalted being, who, having attained 
to the mastery over his lower principles, is therefore living 
unimpeded by the "man of flesh." Mahatmas are in pos- 
session of knowledge and power commensurate with the 



300 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution. Called 
in Pali Arahats or Rahats. 

Mahay ana [Sans.). A school of Buddhistic philosophy ; 
ht., the ^' great vehicle." A mystical system founded by 
Nagarjuna. Its books were written in the second cen- 
tury B.C. 

Manas [Sans,). Lit., ''mind." The mental faculty which 
makes of a man an inteUigent and moral being, and distin- 
guishes him from the mere animal ; a synonym of mahat. 
Esoterically, however, it means, when unqualified, the 
higher Ego, or the sentient reincarnating principle in man. 
When qualified, it is called by Theosophists Buddhi-Manas, 
or the spiritual soul, in contradistinction to its human re- 
flection, Kama- Manas. 

Manasa=putra {Sans,). Lit., ''the sons of mind" or 
mind-born sons ; a name given to our higher Egos before 
they incarnated in mankind. In the exoteric, though alle- 
gorical and symbolical Puranas (the ancient mythological 
writings of Hindus), it is the title given to the mind-bom 
sons of Brahma, the kumdras. 

Manas=sutratniS (&:;^i'.). Two words meaning "mind" 
(manas) and " thread-soul " [siitrdimd). It is, as said, the 
synonym of our Ego, or that which reincarnates. It is a 
technical term of Vedantic philosophy. 

Manas-Taijasa [Sans.). Lit., the "radiant" Manas; 
a state of the higher Ego which only high metaphysicians 
are able to realize and comprehend. The same as " Bud- 
dhi-Taijasa," which see. 

Mantras [Sans.). Verses from the Vedic works, used as 
incantations and charms. By ??iantras are meant all those 
portions of the Vedas which are distinct from the Brahmanas, 
or their interpretation. 

Manu [Sans.). The great Indian legislator. The name 
comes from the Sanskrit root man, to think, Man really 
standing only for Svayambhuva, the first of the Manus, 



GLOSSARY. 301 

who started from Svayambhu, the Self-existent, who is henee 
the Logos and the progenitor of mankind. Manu is the 
first legislator — almost a divine being. 

Manvantara [Saiis.). A period of manifestation, as 
opposed to pralaya^ dissolution or rest; the term is applied 
to various cycles, especially to a Day of Brahma, 4,320,- 
000,000 solar years, and to the reign of one Manu, 306,- 
720,000. Lit., Manu-anfara, between Manus. (See Secret 
Doctrine, ii., 68 et seq,) 

Master. A translation from the Sanskrit guru, " spirit- 
ual teacher," and adopted by the Theosophists to designate 
the Adepts, from whom they hold their teachings. 

Materialist. Not necessarily only one who believes in 
neither God nor soul, but also any person who materiahzes 
the purely spiritual ; such as believers in an anthropomorphic 
deity, in a soul capable of burning in hell-fire, and a hell 
and paradise as locaHties instead of states of consciousness. 
American '' Substantialists," a Christian sect, are material- 
ists, as also the so-called Spiritualists. 

Materializations. In Spiritualism the word signifies the 
objective appearance of the so-called '' spirits of the dead," 
who reclothe themselves occasionally in matter; i.e., they 
form for themselves, out of the materials at hand, found in 
the atmosphere and the emanations of those present, a tem- 
porary body bearing the human likeness of the defunct, as 
he appeared when alive. Theosophists accept the phe- 
nomena of ''materialization," but they reject the theory 
that it is produced by ''spirits," i.e., the immortal princi- 
ples of disembodied persons. Theosophists hold that when 
the phenomena are genuine — which is a fact of rarer occur- 
rence than is generally believed — they are produced by the 
larvcB, the eidolons, or kamalokic *' ghosts " of the dead per- 
sonahties. (See " Kamaloka " and " Kama Rupa.") As 
Kamaloka is on the earth-plane and differs from its degree 
of materiality only in the degree of its plane of conscious- 



302 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

ness, for which reason it is concealed from our normal sight, 
the occasional apparition of such shells is as natural as that 
of electric balls and other atmospheric phenomena. Elec- 
tricity as a fluid, or atomic matter (for Occultists hold with 
Maxwell that it is atomic), is ever, though invisibly, present 
in the air. This fluid can also manifest under various shapes, 
but only when certain conditions are present to '' material- 
ize " it, when it passes from its own on to our plane and 
makes itself objective. Similarly with the eidolons of the 
dead. They are present around us, but, being on another 
plane, do not see us any more than we see them. But when- 
ever the strong desires of living men and the conditions 
furnished by the abnormal constitutions of mediums are 
combined together, these eidolons are drawn — nay, pulled 
— down from their plane on to ours and made objective. 
This is necromancy ; it does no good to the dead, and great 
harm to the living, in addition to the fact that it interferes 
with a law of Nature. The occasional materiahzation of 
the '' astral bodies " or doubles of living persons is quite 
another matter. These '' astrals " are often mistaken for 
the apparitions of the dead, since, chameleon-like, our own 
" elementaries," along with those of the disembodied and 
cosmic elementals, will often assume the appearance of 
those images which are strongest in our thoughts. In short, 
at the so-called *' materialization seances" it is those pres- 
ent and the medium who create the pecuhar *' apparition." 
Independent apparitions belong to another kind of psychic 
phenomena. 

Maya {Sans.^, Illusion ; the cosmic power which ren- 
ders phenomenal existence and the perceptions thereof pos- 
sible. In Hindu philosophy that alone which is change- 
less and eternal is called reality; all that which is subject to 
change through decay and differentiation, and which has, 
therefore, a beginning and an end, is regarded as mdydy 
illusion. 



GLOSSARY. 303 

Mediumship. A word now accepted to indicate that 
abnormal psychophysiological state which leads a person 
to take the fancies of his imagination, his hallucinations, 
real or artificial, for reahties. No entirely healthy person 
on the physiological and psychic planes can ever be a 
medium. That which mediums see, hear, and sense is 
*'real," but untrue; it is either gathered from the astral 
plane, so deceptive in its vibrations and suggestions, or from 
pure hallucinations, which have no actual existence but for 
him who perceives them. ''Mediumship " is a kind of vul- 
garized mediatorship^ in which one afflicted with this faculty 
is supposed to become an agent of communication between 
a living man and a departed "' spirit." There exist regular 
methods of training for the development of this undesirable 
acquirement. 

Mercavah [Heb,), *' A chariot. The Kabalists say that 
the Supreme, after he had estabhshed the ten Sephiroth — 
which, in their totality, are Adam Kadmon, the Archetypal 
Man — used them as a chariot or throne of glory in which 
to descend upon the souls of men." 

Mesmerism. The term comes from Mesmer, who re- 
discovered this magnetic force and its practical appHcation 
toward the year 1775, at Vienna. It is a vital current that 
one person may transfer to another, and through which he 
induces an abnormal state of the nervous system that per- 
mits him to have a direct influence upon the mind and will 
of the subject or mesmerized person. 

Metaphysics. From the Greek fueta^ beyond, and 
physica^ the things of the external material world. It is to 
forget the spirit and hold to the dead letter, to translate it 
** beyond nature " or supernatural^ as it is rather beyond 
the natural, visible, or concrete. Metaphysics, in ontology 
and philosophy, is the term to designate that science which 
treats of the real and permanent being as contrasted with 
the unreal, illusionary, or phenomenal being. 



304 THE KEY TO THEOSOFHY, 

Microcosm. The '' little universe," meaning man, made 
in the image of his creator, the Macrocosm, or '' great uni- 
verse," and containing all that the latter contains. These 
terms are used in Occultism and Theosophy. 

Mishnah (Heb.). Lit., a ''repetition," from the word 
shdndh, '' to repeat " something said orally. A summary 
of written explanations from the oral traditions of the Jews, 
and a digest of the Scriptures on which the later Talmud 
was based. 

Moksha [Sans,), The same as nirvana; a post-mortem 
state of rest and bliss of the '' soul-pilgrim." 

Monad. It is the ''unity," the "one"; but in Occul- 
tism it often means the unified duad, Atma-Buddhi, or that 
immortal part of man which, incarnating in the lower king- 
doms and gradually progressing through them to man, finds 
thence way to the final goal, nirvana. 

Monas (Gr,). In the Pythagorean system the Duas 
emanates from the higher and solitary Monas, which is 
thus the First Cause. 

Monogenes {Gr^, Lit., the " only begotten " ; a name 
of Proserpina and other goddesses and gods, as also of 
Jesus. 

Mundaka Upanishad {Sans.). Lit., the "Mundaka 
Esoteric Doctrine." A work of high antiquity. 

Mysteries. The Sacred Mysteries were enacted in the 
ancient temples by the initiated Hierophants for the bene- 
fit and instruction of candidates. The most solemn and 
occult were certainly those which were performed in Egypt 
by " the band of secret-keepers," as Mr. Bonwick calls the 
Hierophants. Maurice describes their nature very graphi- 
cally in a few lines. Speaking of the Mysteries performed 
in Philse (the Nile-island), he says : " It was in these gloomy 
caverns that the grand mystic arcana of the goddess (Isis) 
were unfolded to the adoring aspirant, while the solemn 
hymn of initiation resounded through the long extent of 



GLOSSARY. 305 

these stony recesses." The word '' mystery " is derived 
from the Greek muo, to close the mouth, and every sym- 
bol connected with them had a hidden meaning. As Plato 
and many of the other sages of antiquity affirm, these Mys- 
teries were highly religious, moral, and beneficent as a 
school of ethics. The Grecian Mysteries — those of Ceres 
and Bacchus — were only imitations of the Egyptian; and 
the author of Egyptian Belief and Moder?t Thought informs 
us that our own word " chapel or capella is said to be the 
caph-el or college of el, the solar divinity.'* The well-known 
Kabiri are associated with the Mysteries. 

In short, the Mysteries were in every country a series of 
dramatic performances, in which the mysteries of cosmogony 
and Nature in general were personified by the priests and 
neophytes, who enacted the parts of various gods and god- 
desses, repeating supposed scenes (allegories) from their re- 
spective lives. These were explained in their hidden mean- 
ing to the candidates for initiation, and incorporated into 
philosophical doctrines. 

Mystery Language. The sacerdotal secret ''jargon" 
used by the initiated priests, and employed only when dis- 
cussing sacred things. Every nation had its own '' mystery " 
tongue, unknown to all save those admitted to the Mysteries. 

Mystic. From the Greek word mysticos. In antiquity, 
one belonging to those admitted to the ancient Mysteries ; 
in our own times, one who practises Mysticism, holds mys- 
tic, transcendental views, etc. 

Mysticism. Any doctrine involved in mystery and 
metaphysics, and dealing more with the ideal worlds than 
with our actual, matter-of-fact universe. 

N. 

Nazarene Codex. The Scriptures of the Nazarenes and 
of the Nabatheans also. According to sundry church fathers 



306 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY, 

— Jerome and Epiphanius especially — they were heretical 
teachings, but are in fact one of the numerous Gnostic read- 
ings of cosmogony and theogony, which produced a distinct 
sect. 

Necromancy. The raising of the images of the dead, 
considered in antiquity and by modern Occultists as a prac- 
tice of black magic. lamblichus, Porphyry, and other the- 
urgists deprecated the practice no less than Moses, who con- 
demned the " witches " of his day to death, the said witches 
being often only mediums — e.g., the case of the witch of 
Endor and Samuel. 

Neoplatonists. A school of philosophy which arose 
between the second and third centuries of our era, and was 
founded by Ammonius Saccas of Alexandria. The same 
as the Philaletheians and the Analogeticists ; they were also 
called Theurgists and by various other names. They were 
the Theosophists of the early centuries. Neoplatonism is 
Platonic philosophy plus ecstasy^ divine Raja Yoga. 

Nephesh [Jleb.), ''Breath of life," anima, mens vitce, 
appetites. The term is used very loosely in the Bible. It 
generally means Prana, '' life " ; in the Kabalah it is the 
animal passions and the animal soul. Therefore, as main- 
tained in Theosophical teachings, nephesh is the prana-kamic 
principle, or the vital animal soul in man. 

Nirmanakaya i^Sans,), Something entirely different in 
Esoteric Philosophy from the popular meaning attached to 
it, and from the fancies of the Orientalists. Some call the 
nirmanakaya^ or body, " 7iirvdna with remains " (Schlag- 
intweit), on the supposition, probably, that it is a kind of 
nirvanic condition during which consciousness and form 
are retained. Others say that it is one of the trikaya (three 
bodies), with " the power of assuming any form of appear- 
ance in order to propagate Buddhism" (Eitel's idea) ; again, 
that '*it is the incarnate avdtara of a deity" [ibid,). Occul- 
tism, on the other hand, says ( Voice of the Sile?ice) that nir- 



GLOSSARY, 307 

mdnakdya, although meaning Hterally a transformed "body," 
is a state. The form is that of the Adept or yogi who enters, 
or chooses, that post-mortem condition in preference to the 
dharmakdya or absolute nirvanic state. He does this be- 
cause the latter kdya separates him forever from the world 
of form, conferring upon him a state of selfish bliss, in which 
no other living being can participate, the Adept being thus 
precluded from the possibility of helping hmnanity, or even 
devas. As a nmnd^iakdya^ however, the Adept leaves behind 
him only his physical body, and retains every other " prin- 
ciple," save the kamic, for he has crushed this out forever 
from his nature during life, and it can never resurrect in his 
post-mortem state. Thus, instead of going into selfish bliss, 
he chooses a life of self-sacrifice, an existence which ends 
only with the life-cycle, in order to be enabled to help man- 
kind in an invisible, yet most effective, manner. (See Voice 
of the Silefice, Third Treatise, ''The Seven Portals.") Thus 
a nirmdnakdya is not, as popularly believed, the body " in 
which a Buddha or a Bodhisattva appears on earth," but 
verily one who, whether a chutiiktii or a khubilkhan, an 
Adept or a yogi, during life, has since become a member of 
that invisible Host which ever protects and watches over 
humanity within karmic limits. Mistaken often for a 
''spirit," a deva, God himself, etc., a nirmdnakdya is ever 
a protecting, compassionate, verily a guardian angel to him 
who is worthy of his help. Whatever objection may be 
brought forward against this doctrine, however much it is 
denied — because, forsooth, it has never hitherto been made 
public in Europe, and therefore, since it is unknown to 
Orientalists, it must needs be a "myth of modern inven- 
tion" — no one will be bold enough to say that this idea 
of helping suffering mankind at the price of one's own 
almost interminable self-sacrifice is not one of the grand- 
est and noblest that was ever evolved from the human 
brain. 



308 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Nirvana {Sans,). According to the Orientalists, the 
entire '' blowing out," like the flame of a candle ; the utter 
extinction of existence. But in the esoteric explanations it 
is the state of absolute existence and absolute consciousness, 
into which the Ego of a man who had reached the highest 
degree of perfection and holiness during life goes after the 
body dies, and occasionally, as in the case of Gautama 
Buddha and others, during hfe. 

Nirvani [Sans.), One who has attained nirvana — an 
emancipated Soul. That nirvana means something quite 
different from the puerile assertions of Orientalists, every 
scholar who has visited India, China, or Japan is well aware. 
It is *' escape from misery," but only from that of matter ; 
freedom from kleshd or kdma, and the complete extinction 
of animal desires. If we are told that the Abhidhamma 
defines nirvd7ia as *'a state of absolute annihilation," we 
concur, adding to the last word the qualification " of every- 
thing connected with matter or the physical world," and 
this simply because the latter (as also all in it) is illusion or 
mdyd, Shakyamuni Buddha said in the last moments of 
his life, '' The spiritual body is immortal." As Mr. Eitel, 
the scholarly Sinologist, explains it : " The popular exoteric 
systems agree in defining nirvdna negatively as a state of 
absolute exemption from the circle of transmigration ; as a 
state of entire freedom from all forms of existence — to begin 
with, freedom from all passion and exertion ; a state of 
indifference to all sensibility;" and he might have added 
''death of all compassioit for the world of suffering.*' And 
this is why the Bodhisattvas who prefer the nir?ndnakdya to 
the dharmakdya vesture stand higher in the popular estima- 
tion than the nirvdnis. But the same scholar adds that 
''positively [and esoterically] they define nirvdna as the 
highest state of spiritual bliss, as absolute immortality 
through absorption of the soul [spirit, rather] into itself, but 
preserving individuality^ so that, e.g., Buddhas, after enter- 



GLOSSARY. 309 

ing ?iirvdna, may reappear on earth [i.e., in the future 
vianvafttaraY' 

Noumenon {G?-.). The true essential nature of Being 
as distinguished from the illusive objects of sense. 

Nous {Gr,). A Platonic term for the higher mind or 
soul. It means spirit as distinct from animal ^ov\y psyche; 
divine consciousness or mind in man. The name was 
adopted by the Gnostics for their first conscious eo?i, which, 
with the Occultists, is the third logos, cosmically, and the 
third "principle" (from above), or Manas, in man. 

Nout {Eg.). In the Egyptian Pantheon it meant the 
*' One-Only-One," because it does not proceed in the popu- 
lar or exoteric religion higher than the third manifestation 
which radiates from the Unknowable and the Unknown 
in the Esoteric Philosophy of every nation. The 7ious of 
Anaxagoras was the 7?iahat of the Hindus — Brahma, the 
first 77ia?iifesfed deity — ''the mind or spirit self -potent." 
This creative principle is the prifnimi 7nohile of everything 
to be found in the universe — its soul or ideation. 



Occultism. See " Occult Sciences." 

Occultist. One who practises Occultism, an Adept in 
the secret sciences, but very often applied to a mere student. 

Occult Sciences. The science of the secrets of Nature 
— physical and psychic, mental and spiritual ; called Her- 
metic and esoteric sciences. In the West the Kabalah 
may be named ; in the East, Mysticism, magic, and Yoga- 
philosophy. The latter is often referred to by the chelds in 
India as the seve7ith darsha7ia or school of philosophy, there 
being only six darsha7ias in India known to the world of 
the profane. These sciences are, and have been for ages, 
hidden from the vulgar, for the very good reason that they 
would never be appreciated by the selfish educated classes, 



310 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

who would misuse them for their own profit, and thus turn 
the divine science into black magic ; nor by the uneducated, 
who would not understand them. It is often brought for- 
ward as an accusation against the Esoteric Philosophy of 
the Kabalah that its literature is full of '' a barbarous and 
meaningless jargon," unintelligible to the ordinary mind. 
But do not exact sciences — medicine, physiology, chemistry, 
and the rest — plead guilty to the same impeachment ? Do 
not official scientists veil their facts and discoveries with a 
newly coined and most barbarous Greco-Latin terminol- 
ogy ? As justly remarked by our late brother, Kenneth 
Mackenzie, '^ to juggle thus with words, when the facts are 
so simple, is the art of the scientists of the present time, in 
striking contrast to those of the seventeenth century, who 
called spades spades, and not ' agricultural implements.* " 
Moreover, while their '' facts " would be as simple and as 
comprehensible if rendered in ordinary language, the facts 
of occult science are of so abstruse a nature that in most 
cases no words exist in European languages to express them. 
Finally, our "jargon" is a double necessity, {a) for de- 
scribing clearly these j^^/^* to one who is versed in the oc- 
cult terminology; and (U) for concealing them from the 
profane. 

Occult World. The name of the first book treating of 
"Theosophy," its history, and certain of its tenets, written 
by A. P. Sinnett, then editor of the leading Indian paper, 
the Pioneer^ of Allahabad. 

Olympiodorus. The last Neoplatonist of fame and 
celebrity in the school of Alexandria. He lived in the 
sixth century under the Emperor Justinian. There were 
several writers and philosophers of this name in pre-Chris- 
tian as in post-Christian periods. One of these was the 
teacher of Proclus, another a historian in the eighth century, 
and so on. 

Origen. A Christian churchman, born at the end of 



GLOSSARY, 311 

the second century, probably in Africa, of whom Httle, if 
anything, is known, since his biographical fragments have 
passed to posterity on the authority of Eusebius, the most 
unmitigated falsifier that has ever existed in any age. The 
latter is credited with having collected upward of one hun- 
dred letters of Origen (Origenes Adamantius), which are 
now said to have been lost. To Theosophists the most in- 
teresting of all the works of Origen is his '' Doctrine of the 
Preexistence of Souls." He was a pupil of Ammonius 
Saccas, and for a long time attended the lectures of this 
great teacher of philosophy. 

P. 

Pantaenus. A Platonic philosopher in the Alexandrian 
school of the Philaletheians. 

Pandora. In Greek mythology, the first woman on 
earth, created by Vulcan out of clay to deceive Prometheus 
and counteract his gift to mortals. Each god having made 
her a present of some quality, she was made to carry them 
in a box to Prometheus, who, however, being endowed with 
foresight, sent her away, changing the gifts into evils. Thus, 
when his brother Epimetheus afterward mamed her, on 
opening the box all the evils now afflicting humanity issued 
from it, and have remained since then in the world. 

Pantheist. One who identifies God with Nature and 
vice versa. If we have to regard deity as an infinite and 
omnipresent principle, this can hardly be otherwise, Nature 
being thus simply the physical aspect of deity, or its body. 

Parabrahman i^Sa7is!), A Vedantin term meaning 
"beyond Brahma." The supreme and the absolute prin- 
ciple, impersonal and nameless. In the Veda it is referred 
to as ''That." 

Paranirv^na. In the Buddhistic philosophy, the high- 
est form of fiirvdna — beyond the latter. 



312 THE KEY TO TMEOSOPHV. 

Parsis. The present Persian followers of Zoroaster, 
now settled in India, especially in Bombay and Gujerat; 
sun and fire worshipers. One of the most intelhgent and 
esteemed communities in the country, generally occupied 
with commercial pursuits. There are between fifty and 
sixty thousand now left in India, where they settled some 
one thousand years ago. 

Personality. The teachings of Occultism divide man 
into three aspects — the divine, the thinki?ig or rational, and 
the i7'ratio7ial or animal man. For metaphysical piurposes, 
also, he is considered under a septenary division, or, as it is 
agreed to express it in Theosophy, he is composed of seven 
'^principles," three of which constitute the higher triad, and 
the remaining four the lower quaternary. It is in the latter 
that dwells ih^ personality , which embraces all the character- 
istics, including memory and consciousness, of each physical 
life in turn. The individicality is the higher Ego (Manas) 
of the triad considered as a unity. In other words, the in- 
dividuality is our imperishable Ego which reincarnates and 
clothes itself in a new personality at every new birth. 

Phallic Worship. Sex-worship ; reverence and ado- 
ration shown to those gods and goddesses which, like 
Shiva and Durga in India, symbolize respectively the two 
sexes. 

Philadelphians. Lit., ''those who love their brother- 
men." A sect in the seventeenth century, founded by one 
Jane Lead. They objected to all rites, forms, or cere- 
monies of the church, and even to the church itself, but 
professed to be guided in soul and spirit by an internal 
deity, their own Ego, or God within them. 

Philaletheians. See " Neoplatonists." 

Philo Judseus. A Hellenized Jew of Alexandria, a 
famous historian and philosopher of the first century ; born 
about the year 30 b.c, and died between the years 45 and 
50 A.D. Philo's symbolism of the Bible is very remarkable. 



GLOSSARY. 313 

The animals, birds, reptiles, trees, and places mentioned in 
it are all, it is said, '' allegories of conditions of the soul, of 
faculties, dispositions, or passions; the useful plants were 
allegories of virtues, the noxious of the affections of the 
unwise, and so on through the mineral kingdom ; through 
heaven, earth, and stars ; through fountains and rivers, fields 
and dwellings; through metals, substances, arms, clothes, 
ornaments, furniture, the body and its parts, the sexes, 
and our outward condition." [Diet Christ. Biog.) All of 
which would strongly corroborate the idea that Philo was 
acquainted with the ancient Kabalah. 

Philosopher's Stone. A term in Alchemy ; called also 
the powder of projection^ a mysterious ''principle" having 
the power of transmuting the base metals into pure gold. 
In Theosophy it symbolizes the transmutation of the lower 
animal nature of man into the highest divine. 

Phren. A Pythagorean term denoting what we call the 
Kama-Manas, still overshadowed by Buddhi-Manas. 

Plane. From the Latin planus^ level, flat. An exten- 
sion of space, whether in the physical or metaphysical sense. 
In Occultism, the range or extent of some state of conscious- 
ness, or the state of matter corresponding to the perceptive 
powers of a particular set of senses or the action of a par- 
ticular force. 

Planetary Spirits. Rulers and governors of the planets. 
Planetary gods. 

Plastic. Used in Occultism in reference to the nature 
and essence of the astral body, or the '' protean soul." 

Plerdma. ''Fullness"; a Gnostic term used also by 
St. Paul. Divine world or the abode of gods. Universal 
space divided into metaphysical eo7is. 

Plotinus. A distinguished Neoplatonic philosopher of 
the third century, a great practical mystic, renowned for his 
virtues and learning. He taught a doctrine identical with 
that of the Vedantins, namely, that the spirit-soiil emanated 



314 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHV, 

from the one deific principle, and after its pilgrimage on 
earth was reunited to it. 

Porphyry (Porphyrius). His real name was Melech, 
which led to his being regarded as a Jew. He came from 
Tyre, and having first studied under Longinus, the eminent 
philosopher-critic, became the disciple of Plotinus at Rome. 
He was a Neoplatonist and a distinguished writer, specially 
famous for his controversy with lambHchus regarding the 
evils attending the practice of Theurgy, but was, however, 
finally converted to the views of his opponent. A natural- 
born mystic, he followed, like his master Plotinus, the pure 
Indian Raja Yoga system, which, by training, leads to the 
union of the soul with the over-soul of the universe, and of 
the human with its divine soul, Buddhi- Manas. He com- 
plains, however, that in spite of all his efforts he reached 
the highest state of ecstasy only once, and that when he 
was sixty-eight years of age, while his teacher Plotinus had 
experienced the supreme bliss six times during his life. 

Pot Amun. A Coptic term meaning " one consecrated 
to the god Amun,'* the Wisdom-god. The name of an 
Egyptian priest and Occultist under the Ptolemies. 

Prajna i^Sans!), A term used to designate the ''univer- 
sal mind." A synonym of mahat. 

Pralaya [Sans.), Dissolution, the opposite of manvan- 
tara, one being the period of rest and the other of full activ- 
ity (death and life) of a planet, or of the whole universe. 

Prana (^S'^;^^'.). Life-principle, the breath of life, ne- 
phesh. 

Protean Soul. A name for the mdydvi rupa or thought- 
body, the higher astral form which assumes all forms and 
every form at the will of an Adept's thought. 

Psychism. The word is used now to denote every 
kind of mental phenomena, e.g., mediumship as well as the 
higher form of sensitiveness. A newly coined word. 

Puranas (Sa^is.), Lit., '' the ancient," referring to Hindu 



GLOSSARY. 315 

mythological writings or scriptures, of which there is a con- 
siderable number. 

Pythagoras. The most famous Greek mystic philos- 
opher, born at Samos about 586 B.C., who taught the helio- 
centric system and reincarnation, the highest mathematics 
and the highest metaphysics, and who had a school famous 
throughout the world. 

Q. 

Quaternary. The four lower '' principles " in man, those 
which constitute his personality (i.e., body, astral double, 
Prana or life, organs of desire, and lower Manas or brain- 
mind), as distinguished from the higher ternary or triad, 
composed of the higher spiritual soul, mind, and Atman 
(Higher Self). 

R. 

Recollection, Remembrance, Reminiscence. Occul- 
tists make a difference betw^een these three functions. As, 
however, a glossary cannot contain the full explanation of 
every term in all its metaphysical and subtle differences, we 
can only state here that these terms vary in their applica- 
tions, according to whether they relate to the past or the 
present birth, and whether one or the other of these phases 
of memory emanates from the spiritual or the material brain, 
or, again, from the '' individuahty " or the '* personality." 

Reincarnation, or Rebirth. The once universal doctrjne 
which taught that the Ego is born on this earth an innu- 
merable number of times. Nowadays it is denied by Chris- 
tians, who seem to misunderstand the teachings of their own 
Gospels. Nevertheless the putting on of flesh periodically 
and throughout long cycles by the higher human soul (Bud- 
dhi- Manas) or Ego is taught in the Bible, as it is in all other 
ancient scriptures, and '' resiurection " means only the re- 
birth of the Ego in another form. 



316 THE KEY TO THE O SOPHY. 

Reuchlin, John. A great German philosopher and phi- 
lologist, Kabalist and scholar. He was bom at Pforzheim, 
in Germany, in 1455, and early in youth was a diplomat. 
At one period of his life he held the high office of judge 
of the tribunal at Tubingen, where he remained for eleven 
years. He was also the preceptor of Melanchthon, and 
was greatly persecuted by the clergy for his glorification of 
the Hebrew Kabalah, though at the same time called the 
" Father of the Reformation." He died in 1522, in great 
poverty, the common fate of all who in those days went 
against the dead letter of the church. 

S. 

Sacred Science. The epithet given to the occult sci- 
ences in general, and by the Rosicrucians to the Kabalah, 
and especially to the Hermetic philosophy. 

Samadhi {Sans,), The name in India for spiritual 
ecstasy. It is a state of complete trance, induced by 
means of mystic concentration. 

Samkhara {Fall), One of the five Buddhist skandhas 
or attributes. '' Tendencies of mind." 

Samma Sambuddha [Fdli), The sudden remembrance 
of all one's past incarnations, a phenomenon of memory 
obtained through Yoga. A Buddhist mystic term. 

Samothrace. An island in the Grecian Archipelago, 
famous in days of old for the Mysteries celebrated in its 
temples. These Mysteries were world-renowned. 

Samyuttaka Nikaya [Fdli). One of the Buddhist 
sUfras, 

Sann^ [Fdli). One of the five skaiidhas or attributes, 
meaning "abstract ideas." 

S6ance. A term now used to denote a sitting with a 
medium for sundry phenomena. Used chiefly among the 
Spiritualists. 



GLOSSARY. . 317 

Self. There are two Selves in men — the higher and the 
lower, the impersonal and the personal Self. One is divine, 
the other semi-animal. A great distinction should be made 
between the two. 

Sephiroth. A Hebrew Kabalistic word for the ten 
divine emanations from Ain Suph, the impersonal, universal 
principle, or deity. 

Skandhas. The attributes of every personality, which 
after death form the basis, so to say, for a new karmic re- 
incarnation. They are five in the popular or exoteric sys- 
tem of the Buddhists : i.e., rupa^ form or body, which leaves 
behind it its magnetic atoms and occult affinities ; vedand, 
sensations, which do likewise ; sannd, or abstract ideas, which 
are the creative powers at work from one incarnation to 
another ; samkhdra^ tendencies of mind ; and viniidna, men- 
tal powers. 

Somnambulism. *' Sleep-walking." A psychophysio- 
logical state, too well known to need explanation. 

Spiritism. The same as the following, with the differ- 
ence that the Spiritualists almost unanimously reject the 
doctrine of reincarnation, while the Spiritists make of it the 
fundamental principle in their belief. There is, however, 
a vast difference between the views of the latter and the 
philosophical teachings of Eastern Occultists. Spiritists be- 
long to the French school founded by Allan Kardec, and 
the Spirituahsts of America and England to that of the " Fox 
girls," who inaugurated their theories at Rochester, N. Y. 
Theosophists, while believing in the mediumistic phenom- 
ena of both Spirituahsts and Spiritists, reject the idea of 
*' spirits." 

Spiritualism. The modern behef that the spirits of the 
dead return on earth to commune with the living. 

St. Germain, Count. A mysterious personage, who 
appeared in the last century and early in the present one 
in France, England, and elsewhere. 



318 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Sthiila Sharira {Sans.). The human physical body in 
Occultism and Vedantic philosophy. 

Sthulopadhi {Sans.). The physical body in its waking, 
conscious state {jagrat). 

Sukshmopadhi {Sans). The physical body in the 
dreaming state {svapfia), and kdranopddhi^ the "causal 
body." These terms belong to the teachings of the Taraka 
Raja Yoga school. 

Summer=Iand. The fancy name given by the Spiritual- 
ists to the abode of their disembodied '' spirits/' which they 
locate somewhere in the Milky Way. It is described, on 
the authority of returfiing "spirits," as a lovely land, hav- 
ing beautiful cities and buildings, a congress hall, museums, 
etc., etc. (See the works of Andrew Jackson Davis.) 

Swedenborg, Emanuel. A famous scholar and clair- 
voyant of the past century, a man of great learning, who 
had vastly contributed to science, but whose Mysticism 
and transcendental philosophy placed him in the ranks of 
hallucinated visionaries. He is now universally known as 
the founder of the Swedenborgian sect, or the New Jeru- 
salem Church. He was born at Stockholm (Sweden) in 
1688, from Lutheran parents, his father being the Bishop 
of West Gothland. His original name was Swedberg, but 
on his being ennobled and knighted in 17 19 it was changed 
to Swedenborg. He became a mystic in 1743, and four 
years later (in 1747) resigned his office (of Assessor Ex- 
traordinary to the College of Mines) and gave himself up 
entirely to Mysticism. He died in 1772. 



Taijasa (fe^^i".). From tejas^ fire; meaning the "radi- 
ant," the " luminous " ; referring to the mdnasa-rupa, " the 
body of manas,^^ also to the stars and the starlike shining 
envelopes. A term in Vedantic philosophy, having other 
meanings besides the occult signification just given. 



GLOSSARY. 319 

Taraka R^ja Yoga {Sans.). One of the Brahmanical 

Yoga systems, the most philosophical, and, in fact, the most 
secret of all, as its real tenets are never given out publicly. 
It is a purely intellectual and spiritual school of training. 

Tetragrammaton (Gr,). The deity-name in four let- 
ters, which are in their English form IHVH. It is a Kaba- 
listical term, and corresponds on a more material plane to 
the sacred Pythagorean tetraktys. 

Theodidaktos (6^r.). The " God-taught," a title applied 
to Ammonius Saccas. 

Theogony. From the Greek theogo?iia, ht., the ''genesis 
of the gods." 

Theosophia {Gr.). Lit., "divine wisdom or thewnsdom 
of the gods." 

Therapeutse, or Therapeuts {Gr.). A school of Jewish 
mystic healers, or esotericists, wrongly referred' to by some 
as a sect. They resided in and near Alexandria, and their 
doings and beliefs are to this day a mystery to the critics, 
as their philosophy seems a combination of Orphic, Pythag- 
orean, Essenian, and purely Kabalistic practices. 

Theurgy. From the Greek theioiirgia. Rites for bring- 
ing down to earth planetary and other spirits or gods. To 
arrive at the realization of such an object the Theurgist had 
to be absolutely pure and unselfish in his motives. The 
practice of Theurgy is very undesirable and even dangerous 
in the present day. The world has become too corrupt 
and wicked for the practice of that which such holy and 
learned men as Ammonius, Plotinus, Porphyry, and lambli- 
chus (the most learned Theurgist of all) could alone attempt 
with impunity. In our day Theurgy, or divine, beneficent 
magic, is but too apt to become goetic, or, in other words, 
sorcery. Theurgy is the first of the three subdivisions of 
magic, which are theurgic, goetic, and natural magic. 

Thread Soul. The same as stitrdtmd, which see under 
" Manas-sutratma." 



320 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

Thumos {Gr.), A Pythagorean and Platonic term; 
applied to an aspect of the human soul, to denote its pas- 
sionate kama-rupic condition ; almost equivalent to the San- 
skrit word tamas, the quality of darkness, and probably de- 
rived from the latter. 

TiiTifieus of Locris. A Pythagorean philosopher, born 
at Locris. He differed somewhat from his teacher in the 
doctrine of metempsychosis. He wrote a treatise on the 
soul of the world and its nature and essence, which is in 
the Doric dialect and still extant. 

Triad, or Trinity. In every religion and philosophy, the 
three in one. 

U. 

Universal Brotherhood. The subtitle of the Theo- 
sophical Society, and the first of the three objects professed 
by it. 

Upadhi {Sa?ts.), Basis of something, substructure ; as 
in Occultism substance is the upadhi of spirit. 

Upanishad {Sans). Lit., ''esoteric doctrine." The 
third division of the Vedas, and classed with revelation 
{shrtUi or ''revealed word "). Some one hundred and fifty 
or even two hundred of the Upanishads still remain ex- 
tant, though no more than about twelve can be fully relied 
upon as free from falsification. These twelve are all earlier 
than the sixth century B.C. Like the Kabalah, which in- 
terprets the esoteric sense of the Bible, so the Upanishads 
explain the mystic sense of the Vedas. Professor Cowell 
has two statements regarding the Upanishads, as interesting 
as they are correct. Thus he says : ( i ) These works have 
"one remarkable peculiarity, the total absence of any 
Brahmanical exclusiveness in their doctrine. . . . They 
breathe an entirely different spirit, a freedom of thought 
unknown in any earlier work except the Rig Veda hymns 
themselves"; and (2) "the great teachers of the higher 



GLOSSARY. 321 

knowledge \gupta-vidya\^ and Brahmans, are continually 
represented as going to Kshatriya kings to become their 
pupils \chelds\''' This shows conclusively that (a) the 
Upanishads were written before the enforceme7it of caste 
and Brahmanical power, and are thus only second in an- 
tiquity to the Vedas ; and (b) that the occult sciences, or 
the ''higher knowledge," as Cowell puts it, are far older 
than the Brahmans in India, or, at any rate, than the caste 
system. The Upanishads are, however, far later than 
gupta-vidyd^ or the ''secret science," which is as old as 
human philosophical thought itself. 

V. 

V^han {Sans), "Vehicle." A synonym of upddhi. 

Vallabacharyas (&?;2^.)- The "sect of the Mahara- 
jas*'; a licentious phallic- worshiping community, whose 
main branch is at Bombay. The object of the worship is 
the infant Krishna. The Anglo-Indian government has 
been compelled several times to interfere in order to put a 
stop to its rites and vile practices, and its governing 
Maharaja, a kind of high priest, was more than once im- 
prisoned, and very justly so. It is one of the blackest 
spots of India. 

Vedanta {Sans>i, Meaning, literally, the "end of [all] 
knowledge." Among the six darsha?ias or schools of phi- 
losophy it is also called Uttaramimansa, or the "later'' 
Mimansa. There are those who, unable to understand its 
esotericism, consider it atheistical ; but this is not so, as 
Shankaracharya, the great apostle of this school, and its pop- 
ularizer, was one of the greatest mystics and Adepts of India. 

Vidya {Sans), Knowledge, or rather " wisdom-know- 
ledge." 

Vinnana (Pd/i). One of the five skandhas; meaning, 
exoterically, " mental powers." 



322 THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY. 

w. 

Wisdom-Religion. The same as Theosophy. The 
name given to the secret doctrine which underlies every 
exoteric scripture and religion. 



Yoga {Sa7is,). A school of philosophy founded by 
PatanjaH, but which existed as a distinct teaching and 
system of life long before that sage. It is Yajnavalkya, a 
famous and very ancient sage, to whom the White Yajw 
Veda^ the Shatapatha Brahmaiia^ and the Brihad Aranyaka 
are attributed, and who lived in pre-Mahabharatean times, 
who is credited with inculcating the necessity and positive 
duty of rehgious meditation and retirement into the forests, 
and who, therefore, is believed to have originated the Yoga 
doctrine. Professor Max Mliller states that it is Yajna- 
valkya who prepared the world for the preaching of Bud- 
dha. Patanjali's Yoga, however, is more definite and 
precise as a philosophy, and embodies more of the occult 
sciences than any of the works attributed to Yajnavalkya. 

Yogi, or Yogin {Sans.). A devotee, one who practises 
the Yoga system. There are various grades and kinds of 
Yogis, and the term has now become in India a generic 
name to designate every kind of ascetic. 

Yuga {Sans^. An age of the world, of which there are 
four, which follow each other in a series, namely, krita (or 
satyd) yuga^ the golden age; trefd yuga, dvdpara yuga, and 
finally kali yuga ^ the black age — in which we now are. 



Zenobia. The queen of Palmyra, defeated by the Em- 
peror Aurehanus. She had for her instructor Longinus, 
the famous critic and logician in the third century a.d. 



GLOSSARY. 323 

Zivo, Kabar or Jukabar. The name of one of the cre- 
ative deities in the Nazarene Codex. 

Zohar {Heb,\ The Book of " Splendor," a Kabalistic 
work attributed to Simeon ben-Iochai, in the first century 
of our era. 

Zoroastrian. One who follows the religion of the 
Parsis, sun or fire worshipers. 

[Readers requiring fuller information about any particular 
term should consult The Theosophical Glossary. \ 



INDEX. 



Abammon, 3. 

Absolute, 2, 40, 55, 58, 59, 63, 
75» 77> 82, 95, 106, 154, 179, 
188. 

Absolute consciousness, 58, 89. 

Absolute harmony, 99. 

Absolute impartiality, 99. 

Absolute justice, 97, 124. 

Absolute law, 59. 

Absolute logic, 99. 

Absolute nothing, 103. 

Absolute oblivion, 131. 

Absolute Spirit, 61, 102. 

Absolute unity, 137. 

Absolute wisdom, 97. 

Absoluteness, 55, 58, 81. 

Absorption, 10 1, 102. 

Abstract, 38, 138. 

Abstractions, 114. 

Accident, 108. 

Accumulated misery, 182. 

Action, 42, 63, 64, 126, 177, 183, 

191, 205. 
Acts^ loi. 
Adam, 166. 

Adam Kadmon, 166. 

Adepts, 19, 20, 131, 134, 178, 189, 

192, 244, 247, 248, 250. 
Adjustment, 188. 
Adultery, 68. 

Aebel Zivo, 166. 
^ther, 94. 

Affection, spiritual, 133. 
Affinities, karmic, 153. 
After-life, 142. 
Age, golden, 53, 
Age, unspiritual, 34. 



Aged of the Aged, 166. 

Agnoia, 85. 

Agnostic Journal, 39. 

Agnostics, 85, 196, 241^ 

Ahamkara, 120. 

Ain Suph, 56. 

Alchemists, 2. 

Alchemy, 19, 34. 

Alexandria, 5. 

Alexandrian philosophers, I, 94. 

All, 30, 75, 76, 102, 106, 108, 162. 

Allegory, 70. 

Altruism, 48, 213, 223, 224. 

Amelioration, 209. 

American Spiritualists, 131. 

Americans, 12. 

Ammonius, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 

21, 112. 
Amun, 2. 
Analogeticists, 2, 
Analogy, 2. 
Ananda, 13, 72, 73. 
Anaxagoras, 85. 
Angels, 92, 164. 
Anima bruta, 94. 
Anima divina, 94. 
Anima mundi, 94. 
Animal characteristics, 232. 
Animal desires, 107, 156, 163. 
Animal flesh, 232. 
Animal food, 232. 
Animal instincts, %T,y 105, 156. 
Animal intelligence, 128. 
Animal-minded man, 107. 
Animal passions, 65, 86, 87, 107, 

113, 156, 163. 
Animal plane, I28» 



325 



326 



INDEX, 



Animal soul, 67, 82, %Ty^ 85, 91, 

94, 102, 105, 108, 127, 136. 
Animal tissue, 232. 
Animalizing effect, 232. 
Animals, 92, 93, loi, no, 127. 
Annihilation, 71, %t,^ 92, 100, loi, 

102, 138, 145, 146, 150, 165, 

169, 194. 
Anoia, ^t^, 103. 
Anthropomorphic God, 56, 98. 
Anthropomorphism, 60, 61. 
Apollonius of Tyana, 22. 
Arabia, Hierophants of, t^Z' 
Arcane Section of T. S., 35. 
Archaic Doctrine, 54, 81, 102. 
Archaic knowledge, 2>Z' 
Archaic philosophy, 84. 
Arhats, 13, 14, 71. 
Aristobulus, 5. 
Aristotle, 5, 94. 
Arnold, Edwin, 190. 
Aryan philosophy, 40. 
Asceticism, 230, 231. 
Ascetics, 231, 245. 
Aspects (see Principles). 
Aspiration, 61, 202. 
Association of ideas, no, 112. 
Astral body, 26, 82, 84, 85, 127, 

135 (see Double). 
Astral capsule, 92. 
Astral eidolons, 127. 
Astral entity, 128. 
Astral inner man, 161, 186. 
Astral principles, 91, 127, 
Astral remains, 26. 
Astral shadow, 87. 
Astral soul, 93. 
Astrology, 20. 
Atheism, 72. 

Atheists, 56, 66, 188, 240. 
Athenagoras, 7. 
Athenians, 87. 
Atma, 62, %2)i 86, 91, 94, 96, 102, 

104, 105, 108, 119, 120, 140, 
^ 154, 155, 156, 161, 166, 167. 
Atma-Buddhi, ^^^ 85, 100, 102, 
^ 108. 

Atma-Buddhi-Manas, 127. 
Atma-Buddhic light, 61. 
Atma-Buddhic monad, 114. 
Atman, 61, 90, 100. 
Atmic elements, 87. 



Atmic vehicle, 156. 

Atom, 58, 76. 

Atonement, 94, 177, 189, 197, 198. 

Attributes, 114, 115, 142. 

Aura, 128. 

Authority, 195. 

Avatara, 160. 

Bactria, Sages of, 4. 

Balance of national Karma, 182. 

Banner of Lights 130. 

Becoming, Ever-, 59. 

Being, 57, 58, 149, 151. 

Belief, 147, 151, 195. 

Belief and unbelief, effect of, 151. 

Bellamy, Edward, 40. 

Be-ness, 58, 102. 

Bhagavad Gttd, 44, 61. 

Bible, 7, 2>1, 62, 96, 99, loi, 241. 

Bigandet, Bishop, 66. 

Bigotry, 43. 

Birth (see Rebirth). 

Bishop, Washington Irving, 173. 

Black Brotherhood, 248. 

Black magic, 20, 61, 249. 

Blind faith (see Faith). 

Bliss, 63, 88, 89, 129, 131, 134, 

143- 

Blood, 166, 199. 

Blood of Christ, 177, 198. 

Board schools, 236. 

Body (see Physical body). 

Body, celestial, 121. 

Body, terrestrial, 121. 

B6hme, Jakob, 3, 20. 

Book of Keys, 96. 

Brahma, 154. 

Brahma, 76, 141. 

Brahma- Vidya, 2. 

Brahman as, 72. 

Brahmans, 8, 12, 63, 72, 197, 198. 

Brain, 60, 82, no, 113, 128, 135, 
168. 

Brain intellect, 87. 

Brain-stuff, 237. 

Breath, 87, 102, 164. 

Brotherhood (see Universal Bro- 
therhood). 

Brothers of the Shadow, 248. 

Brown-S^quard, Dr., 249. 

Brutality, 209. 

Brutes (see Animals). 



INDEX. 



327 



Buck, Dr. J. D., 15. 

Buddha, 7, 12, 13, 43, 44, 64, 70, 

7i» 72, 73> 74, loi, 115, 119, 

176, 203, 211. 
Buddhas, 135, 166. 
Buddhi, 61, 82, %Zy 86, 87, 90, 

94, 102, 108, 120, 138, 140, 

148, 154, 156, 158, 163, 165, 

166, 168. 
Buddhi-Manas, 96, 108, 117, 141, 

142, 155- 
Buddhi-Taijasa, 146. 
Buddhic radiance, 154. 
Buddhism, 9, 12, 14, 66, 69, 70, 

74, 220. 
Buddhist Birth Stories, 119. 
Buddhist Catechism, 69, 115, 118. 
Buddhist texts, 103. 
Buddhists, 12, 66, 70, 90, 100, 

169, 176, 177, 197, 198, 219. 
Budhism, 13, 70. 
Butler, 112. 

Cadaver, 104. 

Cant, 205. 

Caste, 255. 

Causal body, 104, 108, 120, 153, 

154. 
Causation, 208, 211. 
Cause, 178, 199, 208. 
Celestial body, 124. 
Celibacy, 230. 

Centrifugal spiritual energy, 168. 
Centripetal spiritual energy, 168. 
Ceremonial magic, 3. 
Ceylon, 66, 71. 
Chain, 79. 

Chaldsea, Hierophants of, ^tZ- 
Chaldees, 22. 
Change, 69, 105, 141. 
Character, 119, 209. 
Charges against Madame Blavat- 

sky, 250. 
Charity, 40, 71, 215, 217, 222, 

223. 
Charity of mind, 215. 
Chelas, 106. 
Children, 235. 
Chinese Buddhism, 13. 
Christ (see Jesus Christ). 
Christendom, 66. 
Christian Church, 74, 235, 252. 



Christian duties, 203, 215. 
Christian fathers, 10 1. 
Christian savages, 213. 
Christian scientists, 65. 
Christian theology, 84, 138, 164, 

194. 
Christianity, 3, 49, 50, 66, 71, 

loi, 137, 165, 198, 203, 204. 
Christians, 49, 62, 63, 66, 152, 

167, 176, 196, 198, 204, 216. 
Christos, 61, 64, 138, 165, 166. 
Civilization, 219. 
Clairvoyance, 191. 
Classes in society, 179. 
Clemens Alexandrinus, 4, 34. 
Clement, 5, 7. 
Coarsening effect of flesh-eating, 

232. 
Codex NazarcBus, 166. 
Coleridge, 121. 
Collective suffering, 180. 
Commandments, 68. 
Communications with spirits, 25, 

26, 129, 134, 136, 170, 172, 

173. 

Compassion, 192. 

Compensation, 162. 

Concrete, 50. 

Confucius, 7, 44, 212. 

Connelly, J. H., 184, 189. 

Conscience, 121, 167, 214, 223. 

Conscious immortality, 147. 

Conscious life, 146, 147. 

Conscious soul, 133. 

Consciousness, 27, 31, 58, 60, 77, 
80, 83, 84, %'^, 89, 95, 96, 105, 
107, 117, 120, 121, 130, 134, 
139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 
145, 150, 153, 154, 155, 158, 
159, 160, 193, 194. 

Contemplation (see Meditation). 

Continuity, 140. 

Cooperation, 207. 

Correlation of forces, 91. 

Correspondences, 2, 87. 

Cosmic progress, 153. 

Cosmical ocean, 93. 

Cosmos, 58, 77, 85. 

Creation, 56, 57, 75, 98, 164, 166. 

Creator, 55, 57. 

Credulity, 195. 

Creed, T. S., has no, 17, 51, 54. 



32d 



INDEX. 



Creeds, 255. 

Crime, 66, 199, 200, 219, 221, 

238, 252. 
Cup of life, 204. 
Cycle of being, 57. 
Cycle of incarnations, 31, 132, 

142, 148, 161, 162. 
Cycle of life, 57, 76, 89, 95, 98, 

102, 167, 175. 
Cycle of necessity, 149. 
Cyclic rest, 134. 
Cyclic transmigrations, 100. 

Daily life (see Life). 
Damien, Father, 212, 213. 
Damnation, 131, 213, 216. 
Dangers of intercourse with 

spirits, 170, 172. 
Darkness, 99. 
David, 62. 

Days and Nights of Brahma, 76. 
Dead, 131. 

Dear departed ones, 131. 
Death, 11, 31, 71, 84, 87, 108, 

113, 130, 134, 140, 142, 143, 

144, 146, 148, 151, 168, 169, 

196. 
Deed, 125, 177, 183, 191. 
Defence of T. S., 221. 
Deific Principle, 56. 
Deists, 57. 
Deity, 14, 58, 59, 60, 85, 87, 89, 

99, loi, 102, 138, 161, 177, 

186, 197, 198. 
Delusion, 132. 
Demerit, 128, 178. 
Demeter, 88. 
Demoniacal wisdom, 82. 
Deniers, 65. 
Descent of spiritual Ego, 137, 

144. 
Destiny, 137, 161, 186, 192, 214. 
Devachan, 88, 89, 96, 114, 117, 

118, 125, 127, 129, 131, 134, 

136, 138, 144, 151, 153, 157, 

163, 167, 168, 169, 177, 192. 
Devachani, 130, 131, 133. 
Devas, 63. 
Development, 48, 138, 207, 208, 

209, 210, 213, 231, 232, 241, 

246, 255. 
Dhamma, 73. 



Dharma, 190. 
Dhyan Chohans, 141, I49. 
Dhyana, loi. 

Difference between men and ani- 
mals, 93. 
Diogenes Laertius, 2. 
Discord, 256. 
Discretion, 227. 
Discrimination, 212. 
Disease, 172, 233. 
Disembodied Ego, 153. 
Disembodied soul, 152. 
Disembodied spirits, 170. 
Disharmony, 183. 
Disintegration of principles, 88, 

.113- 
Distributive Karma, 180, 182. 
Divine aspect of man, 115. 
Divine being, 149. 
Divine consciousness, 107. 
Divine Ego, 70, %2>, 93, 149, 156. 
Divine essence, 10, 39, 90, 108, 

194. 
Divine excellence, 102. 
Divine fire, 161. 
Divine justice, 108. 
Divine knowledge, i, 2, 12. 
Divine light, 48. 
Divine love, 133. 
Divine man, 108, 157. 
Divine mind, 163. 
Divine nature, 51. 
Divine powers, 161. 
Divine principle, 56, 98, 105, 120, 

I37» I5S> i^o- 
Divine science, i, "^^i' 
Divine secrets, 12. 
Divine self, 47. 

Divine soul, 106, 137, 141, 142. 
Divine spirit, 66, %:i,y 90. 
Divine substance, 83. 
Divine transfiguration, 84. 
Divine triad, 163. 
Divine Wisdom, i, 3, 50. 
Divinity, 193, 216. 
Doctrines of Theosophy, 16, 55, 

109, III, 193, 208, 209, 221. 
Dogma, 12, 52, 68, 190, 193, 196, 

255- 
Double, 26, 86, 105, 106, 107, 

127, 156. 
Dreaming state, 104. 



INDEX. 



329 



Dreamless sleep, 143, 146, 147. 
Dreams, 28, 80, 133, 145, T46, 

147, 150, 152. 
Drugs, 233. 
Duad, 120. 
Dual Manas, 82, Z^iy 120, 140, 

156, 158. 
Dual monad, 108. 
Duality, 96. 
Dugpas, 248, 250. 
Duty, 40, 44, 193, 203, 204, 205, 

207, 209, 213, 214, 215, 223, 

224, 227, 255. 

Earlier Theosophical movements, 

16, 256. 
Earth, 77, 87, 125. 
Earth chain, 79. 
Earth life, 108, 117, 132, 138, 

146, 147, 148, 150, 152, 157, 
192. 

Eastern philosophy, 30, 95, 103. 

Eastern school, 141. 

Eastern teachings, 91. 

Eastern terms, English equiva- 
lents for, 155. 

Eastern wisdom, 81. 

Eclectic Theosophical system, 
2, 4. 

Ecstasy, 4, 10, 63, 112. 

Edinburgh Encyclopedia^ 7. 

Edkins, Rev. J., 13. 

Education, 219, 235, 236, 237, 
238, 241, 

Effect, 137, 199. 

Efficacy of Theosophy, 37. 

Efflorescence, spiritual, 168. 

Eglinton, 172. 

Ego, 26, 28, 30, 31, 61, 70, 72, 
73, 82, %z, 84, 85, 86, 88, 92, 
93» 94, 95, 98, 100, 102, 104, 
105, 106, 107, III, 113, 114, 
115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 
121, 122, 124, 125, 129, 130, 

131, 133, 134, 136, 138, 139, 
141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 

147, 148, 149, 153, i54» 155, 
156, 157, 158, I59> 160, 161, 
162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 
168, 169, 175, 214, 248. 

Egoship, 120. 
Egotism, 63. 



Egypt, Hierophants of, 8, 2>Z* 
Egyptian doctrines, 6. 
Egyptian system, 84. 
Egyptians, zz, 86. 
Eidolon, 86, 89, 113, 127. 
Element, 87, 105. 
Elementals, 26. 
Elementaries, 163. 
Eleusinian Mysteries, 8, 34. 
Eleiisinian Mysteries, 196. 
Elevation of the race, 208. 
Emanation, 56, 76, 83, 98, 103, 

193, 194- 

Emerson, 220. 

Empedocles, 94. 

Energy, spiritual, 168. 

English equivalents for Eastern 
terms, 155. 

Enthusiasm, 220. 

Entities, 89, 122. 

Entity, 82, 95, loi, 128, 154, 157, 
160, 162, 164, 176. 

Environment, 116, 123, 179, 181. 

Epictetus, 214. 

Epilepsy, a symptom of medium- 
ship, 173. 

Epistles, 10 1. 

Equilibrium, 182. 

Equity, 68, 137, 176. 

Errors of nature, 196. 

Esoteric Biiddhis7n, 13, 53, 54, 62, 
79, 83, 185, 250. 

Esoteric doctrine, 140, 220. 

Esoteric instructions, 19. 

Esoteric philosophy, 19, 86, 118. 

Esoteric section of T. S., 17, 19, 

35, 45, 54. 
Essence, 10, 39, 60, 63, 90, 92, 

98, 102, 108, 147, 153, 154, 

163, 194. 
Essenes of Carmel, 5, 9. 
Essential being, 103. 
Eternal Ego, 125. 
Eternal life, 151. 
Eternal light, 100. 
Eternal punishment, 98, 191. 
Eternal reward, 98. 
Eternity, 102, 142, 148, 151, 159. 
Ether, 114. 

Ethics, 14, 22, 35, 44, 203. 
Eurasians, 66. 
Europeans, 12. 



330 



INDEX. 



Ever-Becoming, 59. 

Everlasting Truth, 254. 

Evil, 99, 160, 177, 179, 180, 183, 
187, 200, 203, 209, 218, 219, 
221, 226, 242. 

Evil powers, 248. 

Evolution, 56, 58, 76, 108, 209. 

Example, 221. 

Existence after death (see Post- 
mortem life). 

Existence, spiritual, 202. 

Experience, 79, 163, 201, 202. 

Ex-personality, 127. 

External plane, 196. 

Extra-cosmic God, 98. 

Eyes, spiritual, 146. 

Faculties, inner, 153, 232, 255. 

Faculties, rational, 10 1. 

Failure of earlier Theosophical 

movements, 255. 
Failures of nature, 151, 167, 176. 
Faith, 176, 194, 195, 241. 
Fakirs, 231. 

Fall of spirit into matter, 200. 
Family duties, 214. 
Family group, 133. 
Fanaticism, 213. 
Fancy, ill, 112, 133. 
Fatal necessity, 99. 
Fate of lower principles, 127. 
Father in heaven, 60. 
Father in secret, 63, 64, 73, 90, 

161. 
Fear, 214. 
Felicity, 132. 
Fetish- worship, 57, 72. 
Fever, ravings of, ill. 
Fifth race, 175. 
Final goal, 200, 203. 
Final perfection, 176. 
Final rest, 176. 
Finite, 100. 
Fire, 161. 

Fire-philosophers, '^'^^ 94. 
Flesh of animals, 232, 233. 
Folk-lore, 44. 
Forbearance, 223. 
Force, 80, 114, 210. 
Forces, man a correlation of, 91. 
Foreknowledge, iii. 
Forgetfulness of self, 71. 



Forgiveness, 71, 199, 219, 223. 
Form, 55, loi, 102, 168. 
Forster, Charles, 172. 
Foundation of the kingdo7n of 

righteousness y 10 1. 
Founders of the T. S., 228, 243. 
Four principles, 81, 127. 
Fourth plane, 81. 
Fourth round, 175. 
Fox sisters, 173. 
Fundamental principles, 139. 
Future, iii. 

Future lives, 144, 187, 235. 
Future of T. S., 254, 255, 257. 
Future, seeing the, 11, 112. 
Future state, 82, 122, 142. 

Genealogy of the Ego, 162. 

Gejtesis, i^S, 96. 

Germain, St., 21. 

Glanvil, 171. 

Globes, 79. 

Gnosis, 9. 

Gnostics, 84, 100. 

Goal, 200, 203, 235. 

Goblins, 171. 

God, 52, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 
63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 73, 75, 
85» 95» 97, 98, 99, 129, 160, 
164, 177, 183, 189, 190, 194, 
197, 198, 241. 

God above us, 155. 

God in man, 66, 116, 144, 181. 

God, Manas is a, 162. 

Gods, 63, 81. 

Golden thread, 144. 

Good, 99, 135, 177, 183, 187, 
208. 

Gordian, Emperor, 4. 

Gospels, 49, 70. 

Gratitude, 218. 

Gravity, 114. 

Greek system, 84. 

Greeks, 2,2,- 

Gross matter, 95. 

Group, family, 133. 

Gupta- Vidya, 13. 

Hades, 2>^, 127, 169. 
Hallucinated hysteriacs, Il6. 
Hallucinations, ill, 132. 
Happiness, 132, 133, 200, 203. 



INDEX. 



331 



Harmony, 99, 168, 182, 183, 187, 

188. 
Hashish, 233. 
Headquarters of T. S., 43. 
Heart, 60, 73, 132. 
Heathen, 66, 68. 
Heaven, 72, 100. 
Heavenly wisdom, 82. 
Hell, 50, 122, 125, 164, 216. 
Hellenic teachers, 5. 
Hereafter, 122. 
Herennius, 8. 
Hermas, 166. 
Hermes, 7, 88. 
Heterogeneity, 160. 
Hierogrammatists, 9. 
Hierophants, 8, Ty2>' 
Higher consciousness, 134. 
Higher Ego, 61, 154, 155, 159. 
Higher life, 193. 
Higher Manas, 107, 108, 128, 163. 
Higher mind, 105, 128. 
Higher nature, 223. 
Higher planes, 210. 
Higher self, 10, 46, 47,66, 73, 108, 

116, 117, 119, 153, 154, 155, 

159, 161, 214. 
Higher spiritual Ego, 61. 
Higher states of mind, 109. 
Higher triad, 127, 165. 
Hillel, 44. 
Hinayana, 9. 
Hinduism, 123. 
Hindus, 12, 63, 66, 76, 169, 176, 

219. 
History, 240. 
Holy Ghost, 252. 
Holy kiss, 96. 
Holy One, 100. 
Home, D. D., 172. 
Homogeneity, 160. 
Homogeneous essence, 61, 77. 
Horace, 98. 
Hue, Abbe, 66. 
Humanity, 52, 159, 193, 205, 206, 

224. 
Human character, 209. 
Human consciousness, 121. 
Human Ego, 163. 
Human eidolon, 127. 
Human interdependence, 180, 

236. 



Human law, 178. 

Human monad, 106. 

Human nature, 51, 206, 223, 227. 

Human solidarity, 208. 

Human soul, 2, 67, 82, 94, 95, 

102, 106, 108, 140, 141, 142, 

153, 160. 
Hunter, Sir William, 66. 
Huxley, Mr., 28, 85. 
Hypnotism, 24, 25, 65, 246, 249. 
Hypocrites, 73. 
Hypotheses, 79, 114. 



I (see Ego). 

lamblichus, 3, 21. 

Ideals, 44, 50, 138, 158, 193, 222, 

228, 251. 
Ideas, association of, no, 112. 
Identity, 115. 
Identity of origin of religions, 3, 

53- 
Idleness, 223, 224. 
Idolatry, 12, 63, 72. 
Ignorance, 71, %^, 134, 196, 225, 

238. 
Illness, 233. 
Illusion, 57, 76, 79, loi, 104, 106, 

131, 133, 146, 148, 150, 158, 

159, 160, 193, 195.^ 
Immediate reincarnation, 151, 

167. 
Immorality, 219, 221, 234. 
Immortal Ego, %2>i 248. 
Immortal element, 105. 
Immortal essence, 92. 
Immortal life, 160. 
Immortal man, 138. 
Immortal self, 45. 
Immortal spirit, 67. 
Immortal spiritual consciousness, 

159. 
Immortality, 92, 96, 100, 103, 

108, 146, 147, 148, 149. 
Immutable law, 67, 77, 99, 122. 
Impartiality, 99. 
Imperishable Ego, 73, Zt^, 119. 
Imperishable record, 198. 
Impersonal Divine Principle, 105, 

166. 
Implacability of karmic law, 177. 
Incantation, 63. 



INDEX. 



Incarnating (see Reincarnation). 

Incarnating Ego (see Reincarnat- 
ing Ego). 

Incarnating permanent self, Ii6. 

Incarnation-cycle (see Cycle). 

Indestructibility of spirit, 135. 

India, 66, 72, 74, loi. 

India, sages of, 4, 2>Z' 

Indian doctrines, 6. 

Indifference, 208, 209. 

Individual consciousness, 96. 

Individual Ego, 70, 1 14, 144. 

Individual immortality, 103. 

Individual judgment, 209. 

Individual Karma, 179. 

Individuality, 14, 26, 30, 31, 70, 
7i» 83, 93, 94, 103, 108, 117, 
118, 125, 130, 134, 136, 149, 
150, 153, 162, 168, 194. 

Inequalities of life, 126. 

Infinite, 10, 55, 60, 63, 76, 177, 
194, 196. 

Influences, 170. 

Initiates, 8, 21, 51, 70, loi, 131, 
145, 154, 191, 245. 

Initiation, 74. 

Injury, 225. 

Injustice, 125, 176, 192. 

Inner Ego, 155. 

Inner faculties and powers, 232. 

Inner group, 18, 21. 34. 

Inner man, 104, 158, 161, 186, 

237- 
Inner perception, 146. 
Inner section, 230, 231, 233, 234, 

235- 
Inner self, 27, 93. 
Inner selves, 126. 
Inspiration, 246, 252. 
Inspiration of men by Nirmana- 

kayas, 135. 
Instinct, 84, 86, 105. 
Instinctual soul, 87. 
Instructions, 19, 21. 
Instruments of research, 78. 
Intellect, 87, 237. 
Intellectual capacities, 156. 
Intellectual conscious soul, 133. 
Intelligence, 83, 128, 135, 176. 
Intelligences, 171, 249. 
Intelligent powers, 196. 
Intent, 180. 



Intercourse with goblins, 171. 
Intercourse with spirits, 170, 172, 

173. 
Interdependence of humanity, 

180, 236. 
Introduction to Theosophy, 15. 
Intuition, 43, 121, 195, 196, 214, 

219, 232. 
Intuitional perception, ill. 
Invocation, 63. 
Involution, 58. 

Irrational animal soul, 83, 85. 
Irrational spiritual soul, 91. 
ishvara, 141. 
I sis Unveiled, 92, 161, 169, 198, 

200. 
IT, 58, 76, 108. 

Javar Zivo, 166. 

Javidan Khirady 53. 

Jehovah, 56, 87, 214. 

Jesuits, 56. 

Jesus Christ, 6, 7, 9, 13, 37, 38, 

39, 43, 44, 49, 62, 64, 65, 66, 

70, 72, 74, 165, 169, 177, 198, 

200, 211, 216. 
Jesus, teachings of, 9, 13, 37, 38, 

39, 43, 44, 49, 62, 65, 70, 165, 

169, 177, 216. 
Jews, 37, 60, 62, 73, 97. 
Jhana, 115. 

John, Gospel of, 7, 165, 166. 
Josephus, 5. 
Judaism, 5. 
Judgment, 196, 210. 
Jukabar Zivo, 166. 
Justice, 65, 68, 97, 108, 122, 124, 

132, 144, 176, 177, 189, 200, 

205, 209, 211, 219, 223. 

Kabalah, 20, 41, 56, 100, 166. 
Kabalists, 3, 85, ^J, 91, 165. 
Kama, 107. 

Kamaloka, 88, 127, 153, 169. 
Kamalokic shells, 26, 1 70. 
Kama Rupa, 82, 2>2,y 85, 86, 105, 

113, 127, 156, 160, 169. 
Kama-rupic phantom, 128. 
Kama-tending Manas, 163. 
Karanopadhi, 104. 
Kardec, Allan, 169. 
Karma, 42, 46, 66, Z^, 97, 118, 



INDEX, 



333 



119, 120, 122, 125, 133, 135, 
136, 142, 143, 144, 149, 153, 
155, 161, 169, J 72, 176, 177, 
178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 184, 
185, 186, 187, 188, 190, 191, 
199, 200, 203, 204, 208, 210, 
218, 219, 226, 236. 

Karma-Nemesis, 187. 

Karmic affinities, 153. 

Karmic complication, 108. 

Karmic effects, 115, 137. 

Karmic law, 144, 178, 192. 

Karmic past, 171. 

Karmic punishment, 124, 142. 

Karmic reincarnation, 169. 

Karmic responsibility, 203. 

Karmic transgression, 122. 

Kether Malchuth, 58. 

Key to religions, 4. 

Kindness, 205, 209. 

King, John, 171. 

Kingdom of heaven, 10 1. 

Knight, Prof. W,, iii. 

Knowledge, i, 2, 8, 12, 32, 50, 

53, 78, 79, 193, 194, 195- 
Krishna, 61. 
Kshetrajiia, 61, 120. 
Kumaras, 123. 

Labre, St., 213, 231. 

Lancet, 245. 

Laotze, 44, 104. 

Law, 42, 59, 98, 131, 132, 140, 

144, 176, 177, 178, 179, 192, 199- 
Law, immutable, 67, 77, 99, 121. 
Law of compensation, 162. 
Law of retribution, 46, 97, 124, 

162, 190. 
Law, spiritual, 42. 
Law, unerring, 124, 125. 
Law, William, 16. 
Lectures on Platonic Philosophy^ 

112. 
Lethe, 124. 
Leviticus y 166. 
Liberated spirits, 93. 
Libraries of T. S., 43. 
Life, 14, 53, 76, 82, 84, 95, 98, 

lOI, 102, 105, 106, 108, III, 

113, 117, 123, 124, 126, 127, 

m-, 136, 139, 140, 143, 144, 
146, 147, 148, 151, 153, 156, 



i57» i59» 160, 166, 175, 192, 

193, 202. 
Life cycle (see Cycle of life). 
Life principle, 107, 113, 156, 
Life soul, 70. 
Light, 48, 94, 99, loi. 
Light, 28, 108. 
Light of Asia, 190. 
Light of Buddhi, 141, 158. 
Limbus, 127. 
Linga Sharira (see Astral body), 

82, 113. 
Literature, Theoscphical, 221, 

246, 250, 252. 
Locke, 80, no. 
Logic, 99, 137, 199. 
Logos, 56, 85, 98, 167. 
Long Face, 166. 
Longinus, 4. 
Looking Backward, 40. 
Loss of memory, 109. 
Loss of personal Ego, 147, 168, 

169. 
Loss of self-consciousness, 140. 
Loss of soul (see Annihilation). 
Love, 71, 98, 100, 122, 131, 132, 

133, 209, 236. 
Lower Manas, 82, 84, 102, 107, 

127, 128, 140, 141, 156, 159, 

160, 163. 
Lower mind, 105. 
Lower personal Ego, 61. 
Lower principles, 127. 
Lower self, 138, 159, 238. 
Lucifer, 66, 139, 143. 
Luther, 16. 
Luxury, 208. 
Lytton, Bulwer, 220. 

Mackenzie, K. R. H., 100. 

Macrocosm, 81. 

Madness, in. 

Magic, 3, 20, 24, 61, 248, 249. 

Magic powers, 250. 

Maha-manvantara, 56, 93, 95. 

Mahat, 120. 

Mahatmas, 243, 244, 251, 252. 

Malek, 4. 

Man, 75, 81, 84, 87, 90, 91, 94, 
104, 105, 106, 107, 115, 125, 
138, 156, 157, 158* I^I» 167, 
186, 231, 232. 



334 



INDEX. 



Man and animals, diflference be- 
tween, 93. 

Man, common origin of, 38, 39, 
40. 

Man conqueror over matter, 161. 

Man, unity of, 42, 43, 75. 

Manas, 61, 85, 89, 91, 102, 106, 
107, 120, 127, 128, 140, 141, 

145, 146, 155, 156, 157, 160, 
162, 167, 168. 

Manas, dual, 82, 84, 140, 159. 
Manas, reflection of, 85, 86, 160. 
Manas-Sutratma, 148. 
Manas-Taijasa, 141. 
Manasa-putras, 120, 122, 163. 
Manasic consciousness, 144. 
Manasic Ego, 121. 
Manasic elements, 87. 
Manasic entity, 163. 
Manasic mind, 158. 
Manasic recollections, 145. 
Manifestations, spiritualistic, 25, 

26, 27, 128, 169, 170. 
Manifested Deity, 141. 
Mant, Bishop, 164. 
Mantra, 63. 
Manu, 120, 123. 
Manvantara, 76, 122. 
*<M.A. Oxon.," 135, 174. 
Marriage, 214, 234. 
Masonic Cyclopedia, 100. 
Masses, 218, 220. 
Masters, 21, 183, 244, 245, 248, 

250, 251, 252, 256. 
Material improvement, 210. 
Material life, 151. 
Material principles, 1 19. 
Materialism, 39, 105, 112, 151. 
Materialists, 112, 115, 139, 142, 

146, 150, 151, 156, 176, 188, 
196, 248. 

Materialization, 26, 84, 128, 169, 

170. 
Matter, 30, 39, 57, 89, 95, 96, 100, 

106, 122, 149, 162, 195, 201. 
Matter-spirit, 89. 
Maya, 106, 131. 
Mayavi Rupa, 168. 
Meadows of Hades, 88. 
Meat-eating, 232. 
Medieval Theosophists, 94. 
Medieval Theosophy, 19. 



Meditation, 4, 6, 10. 
Mediums, 28, 128, 172, 173. 
Mediumship, 20, 65, 171, 173, 

253. 
Megittawatte, 68- 
Members of T. S., lay, 22. 
Members of T. S., pledged, 19. 
Memory, 31, 95, loi, 109, no, 

III, 113, 115, 116, 117, 121, 

124, 139, 157, 160, 237, 240. 
Memory, physical, no, in, 113, 

1X6, 237. 
Memory of the soul. III. 
Mens, 106. 
Mental aspects, 104. 
Mental development, 207, 256. 
Mental phenomena, 171. 
Mental plane, 1 79. 
Mental scientists, 65. 
Mercavah, 9. 
Merciful law, 132. 
Mercy, 68, 98, 122, 131, 137, 177, 

192, 205. 
Merit, 65, 128, 178. 
Mesmerism (see Hypnotism), 
Messiah, 166. 
Metaphysical plane, 41. 
Metaphysical terms, 1 5 5. 
Metaphysicians, 93. 
Metaphysics, 70, 80, 87, 219, 220, 
Michael, 123. 
Microcosm, 81. 
Mind, 67, 82, 84, 85, 86, 89, 91, 

98, 105, 107, 109, 112, 117, 

120, 128, 141, 156, 158, 163, 

215, 247. 
Ministering spirits, 164. 
Miracles, 24, 246. 
Misery, 32, 182, 238. 
Mishna, 99. 
Mistakes concerning the T. S., 

17, 230. 
Mistakes concerning Theosophy, 

221. 
Mnemonics, ill. 
Moksha, loo. 
Molecule, 58. 
Moment of birth, I44. 
Moment of death, 144. 
Monad, 83, 106, 108, II4, 147. 
Monas, 85, 94. 
Moon, 87. 



INDEX. 



335 



Moral elevation, 47, 245. 

Moral engulf ment, 182. 

Moral improvement, 256. 

Mortal man, 82. 

Moses, 5, 39, 62, 68, 172. 

Mosheim, 5. 

Motion, 10 1, 102. 

Motive, 180, 193. 

Motto of T. S., 2. 

Movements, earlier Theosophi- 

cal, 256. 
Mimdaka Upanishad, 140. 
Mundane life (see Earth life). 
Muscular action, 173. 
Mussulmans, 66. 
Mysteries, 3, 8, ZZ^ 34, 86, Z^j, 

88, 122, 166, 196. 
Mysteries of God, 68, 160. 
Mysteries of heaven, 72. 
Mysteriis, De, 3. 
Mystery language, 21. 
Mysticism, 20, -^^^ 171, 220, 256. 

Names and principles, 152. 
Names, sacred, 251, 252, 253. 
National Karma, 180, 181, 182, 

218. 
Nationalists, 40. 
Nature, 2, 51, 56, 57, 67, 196, 

200, 206, 221, 223, 224, 227, 

245, 248. 
Nature, errors of, 196. 
Nature, failures of, 151, 167, 1 76. 
Nature, laws of, 44. 
Nature of Manas, 162. 
Nature of mind, 109. 
Nature, secrets of, 21, 44. 
Necessity, cycle of, 149. 
Necessity, fatal, 99. 
Necromancy, 3, 172. 
Nemesis, 125, 187. 
Neoplatonic Theosophy, 15. 
Neoplatonists, 2, 5, 91. 
Nephesh, 67, 70, 85, %%, 96, 166. 
New body, 113, 120. 
New brain, 113. 
New incarnation, 125, 141, 166. 
New Jerusalem, 132. 
New man, 125. 
New memory, 113. 
New personality, 125, 137, 147, 

175- 



New Platonism and Alchemy^ 2, 

5, 9. II. 

New soul, 98. 

NrdJ Testameiity loi. 

Night, 75, 164. 

Night of Brahma, 76. 

Nirmanakayas, 134, 135. 

Nirvana, 63, 70, 71, 89, 100, 102, 

103, 118, 119, 134, 149. 
Noah, 166. 
Nonentity, 128. 
Nothing, 102, 103. 
No-thing, 103. 
Noumena, 85, 142, 159. 
Nous, 81, ^i, 85, 87, 102, 108. 
Nout, 84. 
Numbers and principles, 82, 104. 

Objections to reincarnation, 108, 

109. 
Objective, Atma can never be, 

154. 
Objectivity, 75, 80, 122. 
Objects of the T. S., 18, 35, 36, 

43, 229. 
Oblivion, 131, 132. 
Occultism, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 

42, 105, 106, III, 193, 231, 234, 

249, 253. 
Occultist, 19, 22, 23, 24, 60, 62, 

165. 

Occultists, 61, loi. 

Occult powers, 24, 191, 231, 232, 

246, 248, 249. 
Occult sciences, 23, 24, 44, 232. 
Occult truths, 135. 
Ocean of light, 94. 
Olcott, Col. H. S., 115, 118. 
Oldenburg, 72. 
Old Testameyit^ 39. 
Olympiodorus, 112. 
Omnipresent Principle, 59. 
Omniscience, 68. 
Omniscience of spiritual Ego, 1 16, 

117, 131, 139. 
One essence, 154. 
One law, 59. 
One-Only-One, 84. 
One Reality, 138. 
One Self, 156. 

One Universal Self, 154, 155. 
One Unknown Principle, 161. 



336 



INDEX, 



Only-Begotten, i66. 

Opinion, 45, 210. 

Opium, 233. 

Orientalism, 13. 

Origen, 4, 8. 

Original program of T. S., 229. 

Orpheus, 7. 

Orthodoxy, 16. 

Pagan duties, 203. 

Pagans, I96. 

Pain (see Suffering). 

Palace of Love, 1 00. 

Palestine, 73. 

Pan, 57. 

Pantsenus, 5. 

Pantheism, 57. 

Pantheists, 57. 

Parable of the vineyard, 1 65. 

Parables, 72, 216. 

Parabrahman, 56, 197. 

Paradise, 89, 97, loo, 122, 129, 

147. 
Paralyzing the personal Ego, 116, 

118. 
Paranirvana, I49. 
Parsis, 37. 
Passions, 65, 86, 107, 113, 156, 

163. 

Past incarnations (see Previous 

incarnations). 
Path, 149. 
Path, 35, 46. 
Paul, 12, 81, ^T^, 
Peace, 256. 
Pentateuch, 5, 96. 
Perception, inner, 146. 
Perfection, 176. 
Permanent Ego, 114. 
Permanent principle, 107, 195. 
Permanent self, 116. 
Perpetual progress, 137, 175. 
Persecution, 228, 242. 
Persephone, 88. 
Personal consciousness, 84, 96. 
Personal Ego, 61, 70, 73, Z^, 93, 

106, 116, 119, 147, 156, 167, 

168. 
Personal exertion, 217. 
Personal form, 168. 
Personal God, 76, 98, 183, 241. 
personal happiness, 203. 



Personal self, 116. 

Personal soul, 92, 95, loi. 

Personality, 12, 30, 31, 69, 70, 
71, 76, 83, 92, 93, 96, 100, 108, 
113, 115, 117, 118, 120, 121, 
125, 127, 129, 130, 136, 140, 
143, 148, 149, 150, 151, 155, 
156, 158, 163, 165, 167, 168, 
169, 175, 222. 

Peter, 203. 

Fhcedo, 112. 

Phantasy, 112. 

Pharisees, 60. 

Phenomena, 24, 26, 27, 85, 142, 

159. 171- 
Philadelphus, 5. 
Philaletheians, i, 4. 
Philaletheian system, 8. 
Philanthropy, 255. 
Philo Judaeus, 5, 99. 
Philosophers, fire-, 2>3>i 94- 
Philosopher's stone, 61. 
Philosophy, 54. 

Philosophy, Eastern, 30, 95, 103. 
Philosophy, Esoteric, 19, 84, 86, 

118. 
Philosophy, Platonic, 5. 
Philosophy, Pythagorean, 5. 
Philosophy of Spiritualism, 28. 
Photography, spiritual, II. 
Phren, 85, 86, 102. 
Physical body, 27, 48, 64, 81, 82, 

85, 86, 87, 91, 93, 96, 104, 107, 

113, 120, 121, 124, 127, 135, 

137, 146, 156, 164, 168, 194, 

231. 
Physical brain, 60, 82, no, 113, 

128, 135, 168. 
Physical consciousness, 1 1 7, 160. 
Physical frame, 87. 
Physical life, 84, 123, 136, 153. 
Physical man, 81, 84, 88, 156. 
Physical memory, no, ill, 113 

116, 117, 237. 
Physical mind, 86. 
Physical nature, 248. 
Physical phenomena, 27, 171. 
Physical plane, 41, I16, 154, 155, 

179. 
Physical principles, 113. 
Physical processes, 113. 
Physical science, 78, 79, 



INDEX. 



337 



Physiologists, iii. 
Pilgrim, spiritual, 148. 
Pineal body, 107. 
Pistis, 195. 
Pity, 71, 223. 
Planes, seven, 77, 80. 
Planes of being, 211. 
Planes of consciousness, 81, 105, 
106, 116, 128, 136, 153, 154, 

i55» 158, I59> I79» 192, 194, 

196, 202, 211. 
Planes of space, 8. 
Planet, septenary constitution of, 

79. 
Planetary chain, 79. 
Planetary spirits, 92, 171. 
Planetary system, 77. 
Planets, 77. 

Planets and principles, 87. 
Plastic soul, 107. 
Plato, 7, 10, 34, 44, 81, 82, 83, 

84, 86, 94, 98, 102, 112, 167. 
Platonic philosophy, 5. 
Pleasure, 87, 193, 202. 
Pledge, 9, 19, 35, 44, 45, 47, 86. 
Pledged chelas, 106. 
Pledged members of T. S., 19. 
Pleroma, 1 66. 

Pleroma of Eternal Light, lOO. 
Plotinus, 3, 4, 8, 10, 21, loi, 124. 
Plutarch, 85, 86, 87. 
Point, 106. 
Policy of T. S., 5. 
Political reforms, 206. 
Political, T. S. is not, 206. 
Politics, 205. 
Porphyry, 3. 
Post-mortem consciousness, 116, 

139, 146. 
Post-mortem dreams, 146. 
Post-mortem Karma, 88. 
Post-mortem life, 14, 138, 139, 

140, 143, 148, 151. 

Post-mortem punishment, 122. 

Post-mortem spiritual conscious- 
ness, 130. 

Post-mortem states, 90. 
Postnatal consciousness, 139. 
Pot Amun, 2. 
Potentialities of mind, 109. 
Powers, divine, ibi. 
Powers, evil, 248. 



Powers, intelligent, 196. 
Powers, occult, 24, 191, 231, 232, 

246, 248, 249. 
Powers of the incarnate Spirit, 

. 174. 
Powers, psychic, 172, 247, 249, 

255. 
Powers, spiritual, 91, 161. 
Practical, 179, 193. 
Practical charity, 215, 221. 
Practical study, 130. 
Practical Theosophy, 202, 213, 

236. 
Prajiia, 141. 
Pralaya, 93. 

Prana, 105, 107, 113, 156. 
Prayer, 10, 55, 59, 60, 61, 63, 

64, 176. 
Prayer kills self-reliance, 63, 64. 
Predestination, 189. 
Predevachanic unconsciousness, 

134- 
Preexistence, 94, 100, 112. 
Prejudice, 241, 242, 255. 
Premature return to earth-life, 

108. 
Premonitions, 121. 
Presbyterian Confession of Faith, 

189. 
Previous incarnations, 109, 113, 

114, 121, 124, 131, 143, 144, 
145, 147, 178, 191. 

Primeval emanations, 98. 

Primordial elements, 102. 

Primordial matter, 95. 

Principles, 56, 59, 81, 82, %t^, 85, 
86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 93, 94, 98, 
104, 105, 106, 107, 113, 114, 

115, 119, 127, 134, 137, 152, 
154, 156, 159, 160, 161, 162, 
166, 195, 211. 

Private judgment, 196. 

Prognostication, 112. 

Progress, 137, 153, 175, 193, 209, 

219. 
Prohibitory rules, 222. 
Projection of double, 106. 
Propaganda, 43. 
Proserpina, 88. 
Prospective vision of future life, 

144. 
Protean soul, 107, 



338 



INDEX, 



Prototype, i86. 

Providence, 1 8 7. 

Providential protections, 133. 

Psuche, 81, 83, 86. 

Psuchikos, loi. 

Psychic faculties, 153, 255. 

Psychic growth, 256. 

Psychic nature, 248. 

Psychic phenomena, 27, 171. 

Psychic powers, 172, 247, 248, 

255- 
Psychic realms, 248. 
Psychic senses, 78, 112. 
Psychical body, 82. 
Psychical wisdom, 82. 
Psychism, 20, 25. 
Psychologists, 30, 109, no, 116, 

121. 
Psychology, 65, 135. 
Psychospiritual sciences, 78. 
Public opinion, 210. 
Publicans, 2^%^ 49. 
Punishment, 97, 121, 122, 123, 

124, 142, 143, 176, 178, 187, 

191, 219. 
Purity, 214. 

Purpose of Theosopky, 188. 
Pythagoras, 7, 9, 44, 82, 85, 86, 

94, 102. 
Pythagorean philosophy, 5. 
Pythagoreans, loi. 

Quakers, 49. 

Quaternary, 81, 82, 84, 87. 

Quintile, 88. 

Rabbis of Babylon, 5. 
Race, elevation of the, 208. 
Race, fifth, 175. 
Races, seven, 166. 
Radiant mind, 141. 
Radiation, 77, 98. 
Rational entities, 122. 
Rational faculties, loi. 
Rational soul, 85, 91, 100, 102. 
Ravings of fever, in. 
Ray, 116, 168. 
Reabsorption, 96. 
Reaction, 183. 
Readjustment, 180, 182. 
Real Ego, 104. 
Real man, 89, 125. 



Real spiritualism, 171. 

Real world, 159. 

Reality, 76, 106, 140, 147, I48, 

158, 159. 

Reason, 87, 176, 197, 199, 213, 
240, 241. 

Reasoned faith, 193. 

Reasoning soul, 94, 105. 

Rebirth, 69, 70, 93, 109, 117, 120, 
125, 144, 148, 151, 166, 175, 
178, 187, 189, 192, 200, 202 
(see Reincarnation). 

Recollection, 95, no, 113, 117, 
121, 143, 145, 150. 

Record, 199. 

Reflection, 76. 

Reformation, 16. 

Reincarnating Ego, 26, 61, 85, 90, 
92, 94, 100, 102, 113, 114, n5, 
n7, 120, 124, 128, 137, 145, 
147, 153, 157, 160, 161, 162. 

Reincarnation, 31, 92, 95, 98, 100, 
107, 109, 113, 114, 116, 125, 
128, 132, 133, 137, 141, 143, 
151, 153, 154, 161, 163, 165, 
169, 172, 175, 186, 187, 192, 
208, 211, 219, 221. 

Reincarnation, 186. 

Reincarnation : A Study of For- 
gotten Truth, 116. 

Relative Karma, 182. 

Relief of suffering, 182. 

Religion, I, 14, 41, 52, 255. 

Religions, 4, 5, 14, 41, 54. 

Remembrance, 109, no, 113, 117 
(see Recollection). 

Reminiscence, no, 121, 124 (see 
Remembrance). 

Remission of sin, 1 77. 

Renunciation, 134. 

Research, 23. 

Resignation, 45. 

Responsibility, 1 63, 203, 214. 

Rest, 134, 175. 

Rest of the soul, 139, 143, 172. 

Resurrection, 84, 138. 

Retardation of Karma, 18 1. 

Retribution, 46, 97, I24, 162, 190. 

Retributive adjustment, 117. 

Retributive justice, 1 76. 

Retributive Karma, 179. 

Retrospection, 144. 



INDEX. 



Return of spirits (see Spirits). 

Reuchlin, John, 1 6. 

Reunion with Spirit, 194. 

Revelation of the divine, 141. 

Revelation, Theosophy not a, 1^7^. 

Revenge, 225. 

Reward, 97, 178. 

Reward of Ego, 122. 

Rhys-Davids, Prof., II9. 

Ritualism, 12. 

Romans, T^^t- 

Root of consciousness, 159. 

Root of principle, 160. 

Rosicrucians, t^t,. 

Round, 175. 

Royal College of Physicians, 22. 

Rupa, 82, 114. 

Sacred names, 251, 252, 253. 

Sacred science, 21. 

Sacrifice of founders and leaders 

of T. S., 228. 
Sadducees, 73, 97. 
Sages, II. 

Samadhi, 10, 63, 154. 
Samanas, 72. 
Samkara, 114. 
Samma-sambuddha, I45. 
Samothrace, Hierophants of, 8. 
Samyuttaka Nikdya^ 72. 
Saiina, 1 14. 
Sat, 149. 

Saviors, seven, 166. 
Saviour, 73. 
School, Eastern, 141. 
Schools, 235. 

Science, 22, 78, 79, 114, 237, 246. 
Science, Divine, I, 2>2>' 
Science, occult, 23, 24, 44, 231. 
Science, psychospiritual, 78. 
Science, sacred, 21. 
Science, true, 21. 
Scientific Theosophy, 24. 
Scientists, iii. 
Scientists, Mental, 65. 
Stances, 171. 

Seat of animal desires, I07. 
Second death, 127. 
Second Sights 1 74. 
Secrecy, 9, 12, 45. 
Secret Doctrine^ 54, 93, 105, 122, 

141, 186, 250, 252. 



Secret science, 146, 193. 

Secret wisdom, 10, 70. 

Secrets, divine, 12. 

Secrets of initiation, 74. 

Secrets of Nature, 21, 44. 

Sectarianism, 43. 

Section, Esoteric, 18, 19, 21, 34, 
45, 230, 231, 233, 234, 235. 

Seeming injustice, 125. 

Seers, 78, 178, 191, 194. 

Self, 10, 27, 45, 46, 47, 61, 64, 66, 
7i» 73» 93» 108, 116, 117, 119, 
122, 138, 153, 154, 155, 156, 
159, 161, 214, 238. 

Self-abandonment, 212. 

Self-abnegation, 2 1 3. 

Self-consciousness (see Conscious- 
ness). 

Self-development, 48, 213. 

Self -hypnotism, 65. 

Self-improvement, 47. 

Self-made destiny, 162. 

Self-reliance, 63, 64, 241. 

Self-sacrifice, 71, 211, 213. 

Selfish indulgence, 208. 

Selfishness, 34, 37, 40, 61, 63, 65, 
184, 205, 206, 209, 219, 237, 
238, 245. 

Selflessness, 254. 

Selves, 47, 126, 154. 

Senses, 78, 80, 154, 195, 241. 

Sentimentalism, 1 99. 

Separateness, 180, 210. 

Separation into sexes, 175. 

Sephiroth, 56. 

Septenary nature of man, 8t, 167. 

Septenary nature of planet, 79. 

Sermon on the Mount, 49, 52, 
216. 

Servant playing violin, 118. 

Servant speaking Hebrew, 1 18. 

Seven Buddhas, 166. 

Seven fundamental forces, 80. 

Seven planes of being, 77, 80. 

Seven principles, 81, 86, 107. 

Seven races, 166. 

Seven saviors, 166. 

Seven states of consciousness, 80, 
81. 

Seven vines, 166. 

Seventh principle, lo6« 

Seventh race, 175. 



340 



INDEX. 



Seventh round, 175. 

Sexes, 175, 179. 

Shadow, 85, 87. 

Shadow, Brothers of the, 248. 

Shakespeare, 123, 126. 

Shelley, 126. 

Shells, ib9, 170. 

Siddhartha, Prince, 115. 

Sin, 66, 124,. 180, 225. 

Sinnett, A. P.. I2, 82, 108, 153, 
154, 185. 

Sinnett, Mrs. P., 188. 

Sisterhood, 208. 

Six principles, 104. 

Skandhas, 69, 70, 114, 116, 118, 
125, 137, 158, 164. 

Slade, 172. 

Slanders, 223, 225, 226, 228. 

Slate-writing, 26. 

Slavery, 39. 

Sleep, 28, 145, 150, 153. 

Social efforts, 209. 

Social evils, 179, 208, 242. 

Social prejudices, 255. 

Social questions, 206. 

Society, classes in, 179. 

Socrates, 7, 34, 86. 

Solar system, 77. 

Solidarity, 208. 

Solomon ben Yehudah Ibn Ge- 
birol, 58. 

Somnambulism, 153. 

Sons of God, 52. 

Sons of universal mind, 163. 

Sorcery, 24, 62, 73, 249. 

Sorrow, 123, 129. 

Soul, 2, 39, 67, 70, 73, 75, 81, 82, 
%Z. 85, 86, %^, 91, 92, 93, 94, 
95» 97» 98, 99» ioi» 102, 103, 
105, 106, 107, III, 112, 115, 
118, 120, 132, 137, 139, 140, 
141, 146, 151, 152, 153, 160, 
164, 165, 166, 172, 194. 

Soul and spirit, ^-^^ loi, 136, 167, 
194. 

Soul-memory, 1 24. 

Soul-yearnings, 132. 

Space, layers of, 79, 80, 

Space, planes of, 80. 

Spark, divine, 27. 

Sphere, 59. 

Spirit, 26, 30, 40, 61, 66, 67, 81, 



83, 85, 86, 90, 91, 94, 96, loi, 

102, 103, 105, 116, 140, 194, 

195, 200. 
Spirit identity, 135. 
Spirit-matter, 89. 
Spirit-soul, 88. 
Spiritists, 83, 169, 170. 
Spirits, 93, 129, 169, 170. 
Spirits, communication with, 25, 

26, 27, 31, 128, 129, 133, 134, 

136, 169, 170, 171, 173. 
Spirits, effect of drinking, 233. 
Spirits, intelligence of, 26. 
Spirits, planetary, 92, 171. 
Spiritual affection, 133. 
Spiritual breath, 102. 
Spiritual consciousness, 60, 83, 

121, 130, 154, 158, 159. 
Spiritual death, 1 67. 
Spiritual development, 207, 209, 

231, 232, 233, 255. 
Spiritual efflorescence, 168. 
Spiritual Ego, 28, 61, 82, 95, 107, 

III, 116, 117, 120, 131, 138, 

148, 155, 165, 168. 
Spiritual energy, 168. 
Spiritual entity, 95, loi, 123, 162. 
Spiritual essence, 147. 
Spiritual existence, 202. 
Spiritual eyes, 146. 
Spiritual forces, 210. 
Spiritual happiness, 20I. 
Spiritual holy love, 133. 
Spiritual ** I," 1 16, 143, 148. 
Spiritual individuality, 26, 149, 

Spiritual intuition, 195, 213. 
Spiritual law, 42. 
Spiritual law of continuity, 1 40. 
Spiritual life, 147, 148, 153. 
Spiritual man, 81, 90. 
Spiritual mind, 107. 
Spiritual-minded, 107. 
Spiritual mysticism, 171. 
Spiritual nature, 201, 248. 
Spiritual photography, II. 
Spiritual pilgrim, 1 48. 
Spiritual plane, 1 54, 159, 1 79. 
Spiritual powers, 91, 161, 249. 
Spiritual principles, 88, 106, 113, 

119. 
Spiritual ray, 116, 168. 



INDEX. 



341 



Spiritual realm, 1 54. 

Spiritual science, 78. 

Spiritual self, 26, 116, 122. 

Spiritual senses, 78, 195. 

Spiritual soul, 82, 86, 87, 94, 102, 
106, 108, 120, 142, 166. 

Spiritual Spiritualism, 25, 17!. 

Spiritual spiritualistic phenom- 
ena, 27. 

Spiritual transmutation, 61. 

Spiritual vision, 161. 

Spiritual visions, 78, 191. 

Spiritual world, 139, 161. 

Spiritualism, 3, 20, 25, 28, 30, 32, 
108, 126, 129, 135, 170, 172, 

173- 

Spiritualists, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 
83, 108, 129, 130, 132, 135, 
136, 167, 170, 173- 

Spirituality, 1 28, 256. 

Spleen, 107. 

Spooks, 128, 170, 171. 

States of consciousness (see Con- 
sciousness). 

States of matter, 8*9. 

States of mind (see Mind). 

Sthula Sharira, 82, 1 13 (see Phys- 
ical body). 

Sthulopadhi, 104. 

Study, 224. 

Study, theoretical and practical, 
231. 

Subjective, 75, 77, 138. 

Subjective being, 103, 151. 

Subjectivity, 80, 122. 

Substance, 83, 95, 96, 102, 103, 
194. 

Succession of births, 175. 

Suffering, 99, 125, 130, 142, 144, 
150, 179, 180, 182, 202, 208. 

Suggestion, 65. 

Suicide, 202. 

Sukshmopadhi, 104. 

Sumangala, Rev. H., 115. 

Summer-land, 133, 151. 

Supernatural, 246. 

Super-physical consciousness, 

153. 

Super-spirit, 30, 95, 120. 
Superstition, 44, 195. 
Sutratma, 145, 148, 149, 1 5 1. 
Slitratma-Buddhi, 148. 



Svapna, 104. 
Sweating system, 218. 
Swedenborg, 20, 167. 
Symbolism, 59, 61, 166. 
Symbols of Wisdom-Religion, 61. 
Sympathy, 151, 218. 

Taijasa, 120, 141, 142, 146. 

Tanha, 119. 

TaO'te-King, 104. 

Taraka Raja Yoga school, 104. 

Temptation, 99. 

Term between rebirths, 117. 

Terrestrial body, 93, 124, 1 38 

(see Physical body). 
Terrestrial conceptions, 150. 
Terrestrial Ego, 143. 
Terrestrial entity, 164. 
Terrestrial life (see Earth-life). 
Terrestrial mind, 141. 
Terrestrial personality, 142, I49, 

ISO- 
Terrestrial plane, 137. 

Terrestrial soul, 108. 

Terrestrial suffering, 150. 

Terrestrial wisdom, 82. 

Testimony of seers, 78. 

Tetragrammaton, 56. 

That, 118. 

Theodidaktos, 3, 6. 

Theogania, I. 

Theology (see Christian The- 
ology). ^ 

Theosophia, i, 53. 

Theosophic development, 231. 

Theosophical literature, 246, 250, 
252. 

Theosophical Miscellanies^ 16. 

Theosophical Sif tings, 143. 

Theosophical Society, Arcane Sec- 
tion of, 35. 

Theosophical Society, conduct of 
members of, 47, 204, 220, 223, 
227. 

Theosophical Society has no 
creed, 17, 51, 54. 

Theosophical Society cannot be 
crushed, 243. 

Theosophical Society, defense of, 
221. 

Theosophical Society, earlier 
movements, 16, 256. 



342 



INDEX. 



Theosophical Society, enemies 

of, 242. 
Theosophical Society, Esoteric 

Section of, 17, 18, 35, 45, 46, 54. 
Theosophical Society, Fellows 

of, 18. 
Theosophical Society, formation 

of, IZ, 51- 
Theosophical Society, founders 

of, 228, 242. 
Theosophical Society, future of, 

254, 255, 256. 
Theosophical Society, Headquar- 
ters of, 43. 
Theosophical Society, helping 

the, 221. 
Theosophical Society, incentive 

for joining the, 19, 193. 
Theosophical Society, libraries 

of, 43- . 
Theosophical Society, members 

of, not necessarily Theoso- 

phists, 19. 
Theosophical Society, mistakes 

concerning the, 16, 230. 
Theosophical Society, motto of 

the, 2. 
Theosophical Society, objects of, 

19. 35» 36, 43» 229. 
Theosophical Society, original 

program of, 229. 
Theosophical Society, pledged 

members of, 19. 
Theosophical Society, policy of, 5. 
Theosophical Society not politi- 
cal, 206. 
Theosophical Society, prejudice 

against the, 241. 
Theosophical Society and social 

questions, 206. 
Theosophical Society the store- 
house of truths, 51. 
Theosophical Society and Theoso- 

phy, 47, 48, 50, 51, 215, 222. 
Theosophical Society, what it is 

not, 15. 
Theosophical Society, work of, 

36, 224. 
Theosophical Society, working 

members of, 44, 51, 224, 230. 
Theosophical Transactions of the 

Philadelphian Society^ 15. 



Theosophist^ 48, 54. 

Theosophists, 6, 18, 19, 23, 4r, 
47, 60, 65, 94, 197, 205, 209. 

Theosophy, 2, 52. 

Theosophy, acceptance of, 32. 

Theosophy, age of, 11, 33. 

Theosophy, aim of, 5, 22, 192. 

Theosophy and Buddhism, 13, 14, 

Theosophy and Christian theol- 
ogy, 138- 

Theosophy, definition of, 10, 1 1. 

Theosophy, division of princi- 
ples in, 82. 

Theosophy, doctrines of, 16, 55, 
109, no, 194, 208, 221. 

Theosophy, eclectic, 2, 3, 4. 

Theosophy, efficacy of, 37. 

Theosophy, ethics of, 14, 35. 

Theosophy, Everlasting Truth, 

254- 

Theosophy for the masses, 218. 

Theosophy, medieval, 19. 

Theosophy, meaning of name, I. 

Theosophy, misconceptions con- 
cerning, 221. 

Theosophy, Nature and man ac- 
cording to, 75. 

Theosophy and Occultism, 23. 

Theosophy, practical, 202, 213, 

235- 
Theosophy, propaganda, 43, 44. 
Theosophy the quintessence of 

duty, 204. 
Theosophy, rejection of, 34. 
Theosophy and religions, 52. 
Theosophy not a revelation, t^t^. 
Theosophy, scientific, 24. 
Theosophy, secret, 12. 
Theosophy, seriousness of, 242. 
Theosophy and Spiritualism, 25, 

30- 

Theosophy unfamiliar and ab- 
struse, 34. 

Theosophy, why unknown to the 
West, 12. 

Theosophy, 1 4. 

Therapeutse, 5. 

Theurgy, 2, 3, 19. 

Thinking beings, no. 

Thinking, conscious Ego, 107. 

Thinking Ego, 123. 

Thinking entity, 157, j6o, 163. 



INDEX, 



343 



Thinking man, 8i, 167, 233. 
Thinking principle, 105, 128, 155, 

157. 
Thinking soul, 67. 
Thought, 58, 112, 124, 125, 163, 

I77» 183, 191, 205. 
Thought-transference, 246, 247, 

248. 
Thread, golden, 1 44. 
Thread soul, 145. 
Three accepted forms of memory, 

no. 
Three aspects of soul, 108. 
Three chief aspects in man, 105. 
Three kinds of sleep, I46, 150. 
Three lower principles, 127. 
Three principles, 81, 104. 
Three propositions of ** M.A. 

Oxon.," 135. 
Threshold of Devachan, 125. 
Thumos, 85, 86, 102. 
Timseus of Locris, 94. 
Time, 80. 

To Agathon, 86, 87. 
Tolstoi, Count Leo, 216. 
Tradition, 44. 

Training, 192, 207, 229, 232, 241. 
Trance, 26. 
Transactions of the London Lodge, 

153. 

Transfiguration, 84. 

Transmigration, loo. 

Transmutation, spiritual, 61. 

Tree of Knowledge, 53. 

Tree of Life, 53. 

Triad, 82, 87, 88, 127, 163, 165. 

Trinity, 61, 96, loo. 

Triple unity, 149. 

True science, 21. 

Truth, 41, 51, 52, 53, 131, 135, 

205,254, 257. 
Twentieth century, 256. 
Twenty-first century, 257. 
Two kinds of conscious existence, 

147. 
Two principles in man, 107. 

Ultimate cause, 179. 
Ultimate law, 178. 
Unbelief, effect of, 150, 151. 
Unconditioned reality, 147. 
Unconscious muscular action, 173. 



Unconsciousness, 58, 77. 
Understanding, 87, 88. 
Unerring law, 124, 1 78. 
Union, 92, 102, 187. 
Union of spirit and matter, 195. 
Unity, 41, 43, 56, 75, 137, 149, 

208, 257. 
Universal All, 108. 
Universal Brotherhood, 17, 36, 

37, 40, 41, 43, 208, 210, 215, 

228, 255. 
Universal causation, 208, 21 1. 
Universal consciousness, 194. 
Universal Deity, 161, 177. 
Universal Divine Principle, 56, 

155- 
Universal essence, 63, 102. 
Universal harmony, 183, 188. 
Universal individuality, 194. 
Universal infinite Ego, 98. 
Universal law, 98, 176. 
Universal life, 156. 
Universal Mind, 91, 98, 117, 120, 

163. 

Universal Mind-Soul, 118. 
Universal night, 76. 
Universal self, 61, 54, 155. 
Universal Soul, 2, 67, 94, 98, loi, 

117. 
Universal Spirit, 27, 82, 91, 95, 

105, 199. 

Universal unityand causation, 208. 
Universal World-Soul, 94. 
Universally diffused Divine Prin- 
ciple, 120. 
Universe, 57, 59, 75, 77, 81, 85, 

106, 168, 178. 
Universities, 239. 
Unknowable, 59, 77, 89, 179, 

188, 196. 
Unknown Principle, 161. 
Unmerited misery, 32. 
Unmerited suffering, 142. 
Unspiritual age, our, 34. 
Upanishads, 145. 
Upper triad (see Triad). 

Vacchagotta, 72. 
Vanity, 224, 226. 
Vedana, 1 1 4. 
Vedanta, 40, 104. 
Vedanta Sara, 140. 



344 



INDEX. 



Vedantins, 56, 104, 108, 153, 197. 
Vegetarianism, 230, 232, 233. 
Veil of Maya, 131. 
Vicarious atonement, 94, 1 77, 

189, 198. 
Vice, 87, 205. 
Vidya, 13. 

Vine, parable of, 165, 169. 
Vines, seven, 166. 
Viiinana, 114. 
Virtue, 87, 99, 205. 
Visions, 78, iii, 146, 161, 1 64, 

191. 
Vital double, 105. 
Vital principle, 82. 
Vital soul, 67. 
Voice of conscience, 121, 167, 214, 

223. 

Wagner, 12. 
Waking state, 104, 150. 
Walker, E. D., 117, 186. 
Wheel of the Latv, 177, 196. 
Whitechapel, 181, 213. 
Wilder, Prof. Alex., 2, 4, 7, lo, 
196. 



Will, 60, 61, 161, 231, 236. 
Will-power, 61, 231. 
Will-prayer, 60, 61. 
Wine, effect of, 233. 
Wisdom, I, 2, 3, 2>i, 50, 61, 70, 

82, 91, 97, 99, 176, 231. 
Wisdom, Amun, the God of, 2. 
Wisdom, Eastern, 81. 
Wisdom- Religion, 4, 5, 8, 54, 61. 
Witchcraft, 172. 
Wordsworth, iii. 
Work of members of T. S., 36, 

223. 
Working hypotheses, 79, 114. 
Working of Karma, 191. 
World -Karma, 180. 
World, real, 159. 
World-Soul, 94. 
World, spiritual, 139, 161. 

Yoga, 4. 

Yogis, 10, 22, 145. 

Zohar, 20, 96, 99, 1 66c 
Zoroaster, 44. 






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